Compositions and methods for producing plants with improved stress tolerance

ABSTRACT

The invention provides compositions and methods useful for producing plant cells or plants with altered tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/584,820, filed on Oct. 20, 2006, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/729,316, filed Oct. 21, 2005, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to compositions and methods for producing plants with improved stress tolerance.

BACKGROUND ART

Environmental abiotic stresses, including drought stress, cold stress, freezing stress, heat stress and salinity stress are major factors limiting plant growth and productivity. Crop losses and reduction in yield of major crops including maize, wheat and rice caused by such stresses represent significant economic issues and also lead to food shortages in several underdeveloped countries.

The development of stress tolerant plants has the potential to reduce or solve at least some of these problems. The use of traditional plant breeding strategies to produce new lines of plants that exhibit tolerance to these types of stresses has been slow. Lack of sufficient germplasm resources and incompatibility between distantly related plant species, present significant problems in conventional breeding. Further, the cellular processes leading to tolerance to such stresses are complex and involve multiple mechanisms of cellular adaptation and numerous metabolic pathways. This limits the success of both traditional breeding and that of genetic engineering approaches to development of stress tolerant plants. It would be beneficial to identify genes and proteins involved in controlling the complex processes leading to stress tolerance.

Regulators of gene expression, such as transcription factors, involved in controlling stress tolerance may be particularly useful in genetic engineering of plants, as a single gene may control a whole cascade of genes leading to the tolerance phenotype. Furthermore, there is sometimes commonality in many aspects of the different types of stress tolerant responses referred above. For example, genes that increase tolerance to cold or salt may also improve drought stress tolerance. This has been demonstrated in the case of the transcription factor At CBF/DREB 1 (Kasuga et al., 1999 Nature Biotech 17: 287-91) and the vacuolar pyrophosphatase AVP1 (Gaxiola et al., 2001 PNAS 98:11444-19).

Whilst some potentially useful genes have been identified, the identification and cloning of plant genes that confer tolerance to stress remains fragmented and incomplete. Although it is assumed that stress induced proteins may have a role in stress tolerance, evidence is still lacking and the function of many such stress responsive genes is unknown.

The hot and dry weather conditions in New Zealand and other countries in the summer period can have significant effect upon the yield of ryegrass. This is invariably during the dairy milking season and therefore has real effects on cost of dairy production through either reduced milk yield or the use of supplementary feeds and/or irrigation systems.

It would be beneficial to identify genes which have the capacity to confer stress tolerance in stress susceptible plant species. The development of stress tolerant crops will provide many advantages such as increasing yield and producing plants that may be cultivated in previously unsuitable environmental conditions. Thus, there exists a need for compositions and methods for producing plants with improved stress tolerance relative to their wild-type counterparts.

It is an object of the invention to provide improved compositions and methods for developing plant varieties with improved tolerance of at least one of the following stresses; drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity, or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In the first aspect, the invention provides an isolated polynucleotide comprising:

a) a sequence encoding a polypeptide with at least 70% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:4 or SEQ ID NO:163, wherein the polypeptide is capable of modulating in a plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity; or

b) the complement of the sequence of a).

Preferably the polypeptide has at least 70% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:4. More preferably the polypeptide has the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:4.

Preferably the sequence encoding the polypeptide in a) has at least 70% identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO:82. More preferably the sequence encoding the polypeptide in a) has at least 70% identity to the coding sequence of SEQ ID NO:82. More preferably the sequence encoding the polypeptide in a) has the sequence of SEQ ID NO:82. More preferably the sequence encoding the polypeptide in a) has the coding sequence of SEQ ID NO:82.

In one embodiment the polypeptide is derived from a plant species and comprises the sequence of SEQ ID NO:1.

In a further embodiment the polypeptide is derived from a dicotyledonous species and comprises the sequence of SEQ ID NO:2.

In a further embodiment the polypeptide is derived from a monocotyledonous species and comprises the sequence of SEQ ID NO:3.

Alternatively the polypeptide has at least 70% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:163. Preferably the polypeptide has the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:163.

Preferably the sequence encoding the polypeptide in a) has at least 70% identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO:201. More preferably the sequence encoding the polypeptide in a) has at least 70% identity to the coding sequence of SEQ ID NO:201. More preferably the sequence encoding the polypeptide in a) has the sequence of SEQ ID NO:201. More preferably the sequence encoding the polypeptide in a) has the coding sequence of SEQ ID NO:201.

In one embodiment the polypeptide is derived from a plant species and comprises the sequence of SEQ ID NO:4.

In a further embodiment the polypeptide is derived from a dicotyledonous species and comprises the sequence of SEQ ID NO:5.

In a further embodiment the polypeptide is derived from a monocotyledonous species and comprises the sequence of SEQ ID NO:6.

In a further embodiment the polypeptide comprises at least two repeats of the amino acid sequence motif QALGGHK (SEQ ID NO:242), the repeated moiety being separated by between 26 and 63 residues.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polynucleotide comprising:

a) a sequence with at least 70% identity to the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:82 or 201, wherein the sequence encodes a polypeptide capable of modulating in a plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity; or

b) the complement of the sequence of a).

Preferably the sequence in a) has at least 70% identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO:82. More preferably the sequence in a) has at least 70% identity to the coding sequence of SEQ ID NO:82. More preferably the sequence in a) has the sequence of SEQ ID NO:82. More preferably the sequence in a) has the coding sequence of SEQ ID NO:82.

Alternatively the sequence in a) has at least 70% identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO:201. More preferably the sequence in a) has at least 70% identity to the coding sequence of SEQ ID NO:201. More preferably the sequence in a) has the sequence of SEQ ID NO:201. More preferably the sequence in a) has the coding sequence of SEQ ID NO:201.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polypeptide comprising:

-   -   a) a sequence with at least 70% identity to the amino acid         sequence of SEQ ID NO:4 or 163, wherein the polypeptide is         capable of modulating in a plant, tolerance to at least one         environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat         and salinity.

Preferably the sequence in a) has at least 70% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 4. More preferably the sequence in a) has the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 4.

Alternatively the sequence in a) has at least 70% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 163. Preferably the sequence in a) has the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 163.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polypeptide comprising a fragment of at least 5 contiguous amino acids of the polypeptide of the invention, wherein the fragment has essentially the same activity as the polypeptide.

In a further aspect the invention provides a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides an antibody raised against a polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a probe or primer capable of hybridizing to a polynucleotide of the invention, or a complement thereof, under stringent hybridization conditions.

Preferably the probe or primer comprises at least 15 contiguous nucleotides of polynucleotide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a genetic construct comprising a polynucleotide of the invention.

Preferably the genetic construct comprises a promoter operably linked to the polynucleotide. Preferably the promoter is the double CaMV 35S promoter. More preferably the promoter is the ryegrass promoter of SEQ ID NO:239. Alternatively the promoter is a portion of the ryegrass promoter of SEQ ID NO:239 that provides essentially the same expression pattern as the ryegrass promoter of SEQ ID NO:239.

In a further aspect the invention provides a vector comprising the genetic construct of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a host cell comprising a genetic construct of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a host cell genetically modified to express the polynucleotide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a plant cell comprising the genetic construct of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a plant cell genetically modified to express a polynucleotide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a plant which comprises the plant cell of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for producing a polypeptide of the invention, the method comprising culturing a host cell comprising a genetic construct of the invention designed to express the polypeptide.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for producing a plant cell or plant with altered tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity; the method comprising the step of transformation of a plant cell or plant with a genetic construct including:

a) at least one polynucleotide of the invention; or

b) at least one polynucleotide comprising a fragment, of at least 15 nucleotides in length, of the polynucleotide of a);

In a further aspect the invention provides a plant produced by the method of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with altered tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polynucleotide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with altered tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a plant selected by a selection method of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a plant part, propagule, progeny or seed of the plant of the invention.

In preferred embodiments of the invention the environmental stress is drought stress.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polynucleotide comprising the sequence of SEQ ID NO:82 or a variant thereof, wherein the variant encodes a polypeptide which modulates in a plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Preferably the variant of SEQ ID NO:82 encodes a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence:

(SEQ ID NO: 1) LX₁X₂X₃X₄X₅X₆LX₇X₈X₉KX₁₀X₁₁X₁₂RX₁₃EKX₁₄X₁₅X₁₆K wherein X₁ = Q, E, H, L, R, T or S, X₂ = E, D or Q, X₃ = K, R, A, E or T, X₄ = I or S, X₅ = K, R, D or N, X₆ = E, D or S, X₇ = K, T or I, X₈ = A, V, S, T, D, V or Q, X₉ = E or D, X₁₀ = N, D, T or S, X₁₁ = E or D, X₁₂ = L or S, X₁₃ = D, H or E, X₁₄ = Q, H, R, L, V, T or A and X₁₅ = K, R, V, T or S, X₁₆ = L or M, the polypeptide modulating, in a plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Alternatively the variant of SEQ ID NO:82 encodes a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence:

(SEQ ID NO: 2) LX₁X₂X₃X₄X₅X₆L_(X)7X₈X₉KX₁₀X₁₁LRX₁₂EKX₁₃X₁₄X₁₅K wherein X₁ = Q, H, L, R, T or S, X₂ = E, D or Q, X₃ = K, R, A or E, X₄ = I or S, X₅ = K, R, D or N, X₆ = E, D or S, X₇ = K, T or I, X₈ = A, V, S, T, D, or Q, X₉ = E or D, X₁₀ = N, T or S, X₁₁ = E or D, X₁₂ = D or E, X₁₃ = Q, H, R, L, T or A, X₁₄ = K, R, V, T or S and X₁₅ = L or M, the polypeptide modulating, in a dicotyledonous plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Alternatively the variant of SEQ ID NO:82 encodes a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence:

(SEQ ID NO: 3) LX₁X₂X₃IX₄X₅LKX₆X₇KX₈EX₉RX₁₀EKX₁₁X₁₂X₁₃K where X₁ = Q, E or R, X₂ = E or D, X₃ = K or T, X₄ = K or R, X₅ = E or D, X₆ = A or V, X₇ = E or D, X₈ = N or D, X₉ = L or S, X₁₀ = D or H, X₁₁ = Q or V, X₁₂ = K, R or T and X₁₃ = L or M, the polypeptide modulating, in a monocotyledonous plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Exemplary polynucleotide variants of SEQ ID NO: 82 are disclosed herein and identified as SEQ ID NOs: 83-159 of the sequence listing.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polynucleotide comprising the sequence of SEQ ID NO:82.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polynucleotide consisting of the sequence of SEQ ID NO:82.

In a further aspect the invention provides polynucleotides comprising fragments of SEQ ID NO: 82. Polynucleotides comprising fragments of the polynucleotide variants also form part of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polynucleotide comprising the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 201 or a variant thereof, wherein the variant encodes a polypeptide which modulates in a plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Preferably the variant of SEQ ID NO:201 encodes a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence:

(SEQ ID NO: 160) X₁X₂CX₃VCX₄X₅X₆X₇X₈X₉YQALGGHKX₁₀SHRX₁₁ where X₁ = H, F or Y, X₂ = G, A, K, E or R, X₃ = S, T, N or G, X₄ = G, E, D, N or Y, X₅ = K or R, X₆ = A, S, V, G, or T, X₇ = F or Y, X₈ = A, P, S or G, X₉ = S or T, X₁₀ = A or T and X₁₁ = K, S, I, P, T or V the polypeptide modulating, in a plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Alternatively the variant of SEQ ID NO:201 encodes a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence:

(SEQ ID NO: 161) X₁X₂CX₃VCX₄KX₅FX₆SYQALGGHKX₇SHRX₈ where X₁ = H, F or Y, X₂ = G, A, K, E or R, X₃ = S, T, N or G, X₄ = G, E, D, N or Y, X₅ = A, S, G, or T, X₆ = A, P. S or G, X₇ = A or T and X₈ = K, S, I, P, T or V the polypeptide modulating, in a dicotyledonous plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Alternatively the variant of SEQ ID NO:201 encodes a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence:

(SEQ ID NO: 162) X₁X₂CSVCGX₃X₄X₅X₆SYQALGGHKX₇SHRX₈ where X₁ = H, F or Y, X₂ = G, A, K, E or R, X₃ = K or R, X₄ = A, S, V, or G, X₅ = F or Y, X₆ = A, P, S or G, X₇ = A or T, X₈ = K, P, T or V. the polypeptide modulating, in a monocotyledonous plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Alternatively the variant of SEQ ID NO:201 encodes a polypeptide comprising at least two repeats of the amino acid sequence motif QALGGHK (SEQ ID NO:244), the repeated sequence motif being separated by about 36 to about 60 residues, wherein the polypeptide modulates, in a plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity. Preferably the motif is separated by about 40 to about 60 residues, more preferably by about 50 to about 60 residues, most preferably by about 56 residues. Preferably the polypeptide encoded by the variant modulates tolerance to the environmental stress in a dicotyledonous plant. More preferably the polypeptide encoded by the variant modulates tolerance to the environmental stress in a moncotyledonous plant.

Exemplary polynucleotide variants of SEQ ID NO: 201 are disclosed herein and identified as SEQ ID NOs: 202-238 of the sequence listing.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polynucleotide comprising the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 201.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polynucleotide consisting of the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 201.

In a further aspect the invention provides polynucleotides comprising fragments of SEQ ID NO: 201. Polynucleotides comprising fragments of the polynucleotide variants also form part of the invention.

The isolated polynucleotides of the invention are also useful in methods for selecting plants tolerant to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polypeptide comprising the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 4 or a variant thereof, wherein the variant modulates in a plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Preferably the variant of SEQ ID NO: 4 comprises the amino acid sequence:

(SEQ ID NO: 1) LX₁X₂X₃X₄X₅X₆LX₇X₈X₉KX₁₀X₁₁X₁₂RX₁₃EKX₁₄X₁₅X₁₆K wherein X₁ = Q, E, H, L, R, T or S, X₂ = E, D or Q, X₃ = K, R, A, E or T, X₄ = I or S, X₅ = K, R, D or N, X₆ = E, D or S, X₇ = K, T or I, X₈ = A, V, S, T, D, V or Q, X₉ = E or D, X₁₀ = N, D, T or S, X₁₁ = E or D, X₁₂ = L or S, X₁₃ = D, H or E, X₁₄ = Q, H, R, L, V, T or A and X₁₅ = K, R, V, T or S, X₁₆ = L or M, and modulates in a plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Alternatively the variant of SEQ ID NO: 4 comprises the amino acid sequence:

(SEQ ID NO: 2) LX₁X₂X₃X₄X₅X₆L_(X)7X₈X₉KX₁₀X₁₁LRX₁₂EKX₁₃X₁₄X₁₅K wherein X₁ = Q, H, L, R, T or S, X₂ = E, D or Q, X₃ = K, R, A or E, X₄ = I or S, X₅ = K, R, D or N, X₆ = E, D or S, X₇ = K, T or I, X₈ = A, V, S, T, D, or Q, X₉ = E or D, X₁₀ = N, T or S, X₁₁ = E or D, X₁₂ = D or E, X₁₃ = Q, H, R, L, T or A, X₁₄ = K, R, V, T or S and X₁₅ = L or M, and modulates in a dicotyledonous plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Alternatively the variant of SEQ ID NO: 4 comprises the amino acid sequence:

(SEQ ID NO: 3) LX₁X₂X₃IX₄X₅LKX₆X₇KX₈EX₉RX₁₀EKX₁₁X₁₂X₁₃K where X₁ = Q, E or R, X₂ = E or D, X₃ = K or T, X₄ = K or R, X₅ = E or D, X₆ = A or V, X₇ = E or D, X₈ = N or D, X₉ = L or S, X₁₀ = D or H, X₁₁ = Q or V, X₁₂ = K, R or T and X₁₃ = L or M, and modulates in a in a monocotyledonous plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Exemplary polypeptide variants of SEQ ID NO: 4 are disclosed herein and identified as SEQ ID NOs: 5-81 of the sequence listing.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polypeptide comprising the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 4.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polypeptide consisting of the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 4.

In a further aspect the invention provides polypeptides comprising fragments of SEQ ID NO: 4. Polypeptides comprising fragments of variants, also form part of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polypeptide comprising the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 163 or a variant thereof, wherein the variant modulates in a plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Preferably the variant of SEQ ID NO: 163 comprises the amino acid sequence:

(SEQ ID NO: 160) X₁X₂CX₃VCX₄X₅X₆X₇X₈X₉YQALGGHKX₁₀SHRX₁₁ where X₁ = H, F or Y, X₂ = G, A, K, E or R, X₃ = S, T, N or G, X₄ = G, E, D, N or Y, X₅ = K or R, X₆ = A, S, V, G, or T, X₇ = F or Y, X₈ = A, P, S or G, X₉ = S or T, X₁₀ = A or T and X₁₁ = K, S, I, P, T or V and modulates in a plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Alternatively the variant of SEQ ID NO: 163 comprises the amino acid sequence:

(SEQ ID NO: 161) X₁X₂CX₃VCX₄KX₅FX₆SYQALGGHKX₇SHRX₈ where X₁ = H, F or Y, X₂ = G, A, K, E or R, X₃ = S, T, N or G, X₄ = G, E, D, N or Y, X₅ = A, S, G, or T, X₆ = A, P. S or G, X₇ = A or T and X₈ = K, S, I, P, T or V and modulates in a dicotyledonous plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Alternatively the variant of SEQ ID NO: 163 comprises the amino acid sequence:

(SEQ ID NO: 162) X₁X₂CSVCGX₃X₄X₅X₆SYQALGGHKX₇SHRX₈ where X₁ = H, F or Y, X₂ = G, A, K, E or R, X₃ = K or R, X₄ = A, S, V, or G, X₅ = F or Y, X₆ = A, P, S or G, X₇ = A or T, X₈ = K, P, T or V. and modulates in a monocotyledonous plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Alternatively the variant of SEQ ID NO: 163 comprises at least two repeats of the amino acid sequence motif QALGGHK (SEQ ID NO:244), the repeated sequence motif being separated by about 36 to about 63 residues, wherein the polypeptide modulates, in a plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity. Preferably the motif is separated by about 40 to about 60 residues, more preferably by about 50 to about 60 residues, most preferably by about 56 residues. Preferably the polypeptide modulates tolerance to the environmental stress in a dicotyledonous plant. More preferably the polypeptide modulates tolerance to the environmental stress in a monocotyledonous plant.

Exemplary polypeptide variants of SEQ ID NO: 163 are disclosed herein and identified as SEQ ID NOs: 164-200 of the sequence listing.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polypeptide comprising the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 163.

In a further aspect the invention provides an isolated polypeptide consisting of the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 163.

In a further aspect the invention provides polypeptides comprising fragments of SEQ ID NO: 163. Polypeptides comprising fragments of variants, also form part of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a genetic construct which comprises a polynucleotide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a genetic construct which comprises a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a genetic construct which comprises a polynucleotide of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 82-159, or a variant or fragment thereof

In a further aspect the invention provides a genetic construct which comprises a polynucleotide of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 201-238, or a variant or fragment thereof.

In a further aspect the invention provides a genetic construct which comprises the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 82, or a variant or fragment thereof

In a further aspect the invention provides a genetic construct which comprises the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 82.

In a further aspect the invention provides a genetic construct which comprises the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 201, or a variant or fragment thereof

In a further aspect the invention provides a genetic construct which comprises the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 201.

Preferably the constructs of the invention are expression constructs as herein defined. Preferably expression constructs of the invention include an environmental stress responsive promoter operably linked polynucleotide sequence. Preferably the environmental stress responsive promoter is responsive to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Preferably the expression construct includes a promoter comprising the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 239 or a fragment, region, cis-element or variant of the sequence capable of regulating transcription of an operably linked polynucleotide sequence.

In a further aspect the invention provides a vector which comprises a genetic construct of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a host cell which comprises a genetic construct of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides methods for the recombinant production of polypeptide of the invention comprising the steps of:

-   -   a) culturing a host cell comprising a genetic construct of the         invention, such as an expression construct as defined herein,         capable of expressing a polypeptide of the invention, and     -   b) separating the expressed polypeptide.

In a further aspect the invention provides a plant cell which comprises one or more of the genetic constructs of the invention. In a preferred embodiment the genetic construct comprises the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 82 or a variant or fragment thereof.

In a further aspect the invention provides a plant cell which comprises one or more of the genetic constructs of the invention. In a preferred embodiment the genetic construct comprises the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NOs: 201 or a variant or fragment thereof.

In a further aspect the invention provides a plant cell with altered expression of a polynucleotide or polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a plant cell genetically modified to alter expression of a polynucleotide or polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a plant which comprises a plant cell of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides methods for altering in a plant, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity, the method comprising transformation of a plant cell, or plant with a genetic construct of the invention capable of altering expression of a polynucleotide/polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides methods for altering tolerance to drought stress in a plant, the method comprising transformation of a plant with a genetic construct of the invention capable of altering expression of a polynucleotide/polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides methods for altering tolerance to cold stress in a plant, the method comprising transformation of a plant with a genetic construct of the invention capable of altering expression of a polynucleotide/polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides methods for altering tolerance to freezing stress in a plant, the method comprising transformation of a plant with a genetic construct of the invention capable of altering expression of a polynucleotide/polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides methods for altering tolerance to heat stress in a plant, the method comprising transformation of a plant with a genetic construct of the invention capable of altering expression of a polynucleotide/polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides methods for altering tolerance to salinity stress in a plant, the method comprising transformation of a plant with a genetic construct of the invention capable of altering expression of a polynucleotide/polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides methods for altering tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity in a plant, the method comprising transformation of a plant with a genetic construct of the invention capable of altering expression of a polynucleotide involved in modulation in a plant of tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

In a further aspect the invention provides methods for altering tolerance to drought stress in a plant, the method comprising transformation of a plant with a genetic construct of the invention capable of altering expression of a polynucleotide involved in modulation tolerance to drought stress in a plant.

In a further aspect the invention provides methods for altering tolerance to cold stress in a plant the method comprising transformation of a plant with a genetic construct of the invention capable of altering expression of a polynucleotide involved in modulation of tolerance to cold stress in a plant.

In a further aspect the invention provides methods for altering tolerance to freezing stress in a plant, the method comprising transformation of a plant with a genetic construct of the invention capable of altering expression of a polynucleotide involved in modulation of tolerance to freezing stress in a plant.

In a further aspect the invention provides methods for altering tolerance to heat stress in a plant, the method comprising transformation of a plant with a genetic construct of the invention capable of altering expression of a polynucleotide involved in modulation of tolerance to freezing stress in a plant.

In a further aspect the invention provides methods for altering tolerance to salinity stress in a plant, the method comprising transformation of a plant with a genetic construct of the invention capable of altering expression of a polynucleotide involved in modulation of tolerance to salinity stress in a plant.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that transformation of a plant may involve transforming a plant cell/s and regenerating a transformed plant from the transformed plant cell/s.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with increased tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polynucleotide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with increased tolerance to drought stress, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polynucleotide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with increased tolerance to cold stress, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polynucleotide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with increased tolerance to freezing stress, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polynucleotide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with increased tolerance to heat stress, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polynucleotide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with increased tolerance to salinity stress, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polynucleotide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with increased tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with increased tolerance to drought stress, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with increased tolerance to cold stress, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with increased tolerance to freezing stress, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with increased tolerance to heat stress, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a method for selecting a plant with increased tolerance to salinity stress, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polypeptide of the invention.

In a further aspect the invention provides a plant cell or plant produced by a method of the invention.

The polynucleotides and polynucleotide variants, of the invention may be derived from any species and/or may be produced recombinantly or synthetically.

In one embodiment the polynucleotide or variant, is derived from a plant species.

In a further embodiment the polynucleotide or variant, is derived from a gymnosperm plant species.

In a further embodiment the polynucleotide or variant, is derived from an angiosperm plant species.

In a further embodiment the polynucleotide or variant, is derived from a from dicotyledonous plant species.

In a further embodiment the polynucleotide or variant, is derived from a monocotyledonous plant species.

The polypeptide and polypeptide variants, of the invention may be derived from any species and/or may be produced recombinantly or synthetically.

In one embodiment the polypeptide or variant, is derived from a plant species.

In a further embodiment the polypeptide or variant, is derived from a gymnosperm plant species.

In a further embodiment the polypeptide or variant, is derived from an angiosperm plant species.

In a further embodiment the polypeptide or variant, is derived from a from dicotyledonous plant species.

In a further embodiment the polypeptide or variant, is derived from a monocotyledonous plant species.

The plant cell or plant may be derived from any plant species.

In a further embodiment the plant cell or plant, is derived from a gymnosperm plant species.

In a further embodiment the plant cell or plant, is derived from an angiosperm plant species.

In a further embodiment the plant cell or plant, is derived from a from dicotyledonous plant species.

In a further embodiment the plant cell or plant, is derived from a monocotyledonous plant species.

Preferred dicotyledonous genera include: Amygdalus, Anacardium, Arachis, Brassica, Cajanus, Cannabis, Carthamus, Carya, Ceiba, Cicer, Cocos, Coriandrum, Coronilla, Crotalaria, Dolichos, Elaeis, lycine, Gossypium, Helianthus, Lathyrus, Lens, Lespedeza, Linum, Lotus, Lupinus, Macadamia, Medicago, Melilotus, Mucuna, Olea, Onobrychis, Ornithopus, Papaver, Phaseolus, Phoenix, Pistacia, Pisum, Prunus, Pueraria, Ribes, Ricinus, Sesamum, Theobroma, Trtfolium, Trigonella, Vicia and Vigna.

Preferred dicotyledonous species include: Amygdalus communis, Anacardium occidentals, Arachis hypogaea, Arachis hypogea, Brassica napus Rape, Brassica. nigra. Brassica campestris, Cajanus cajan, Cajanus indicus, Cannabis saliva, Carthamus tinctorius, Carya illinoinensis, Ceiba pentandra, Cicer arietinum, Cocos nucifera, Coriandrum sativum, Coronilla varia, Crotalaria juncea, Dolichos lablab, Elaeis guineensis, Gossypium arboreum, Gossypium narking, Gossypium barbadense, Gossypium herbaceum, Gossypium hirsutum, Glycine max, Glycine ussuriensis, Glycine gracilis, Helianthus annus, Lupinus angustifolius, Lupinus luteus, Lupinus mutabilis, Lespedeza sericea, Lespedeza striata, Lotus uliginosus, Lathyrus sativus, Lens culinaris, Lespedeza stipulacea, Linum usitatissimum, Lotus corniculatus, Lupinus albus, Medicago arborea, Medicago falcate, Medicago hispida, Medicago officinalis, Medicago. saliva Alfalfa, Medicago tribuloides, Macadamia integrifolia, Medicago arabica, Melilotus albus, Mucuna pruriens, Olea europaea, Onobrychis viciifolia, Ornithopus sativus, Phaseolus aureus, Prunus cerasifera, Prunus cerasus, Phaseolus coccineus, Prunus domestica, Phaseolus lunatus, Prunus. maheleb, Phaseolus mungo, Prunus. persica, Prunus. pseudocerasus, Phaseolus vulgaris, Papaver somniferum, Phaseolus acutifolius, Phoenix dactylifera, Pistacia vera, Pisum sativum, Prunus amygdalus, Prunus armeniaca, Pueraria thunbergiana, Ribes nigrum, Ribes rubrum, Ribes grossularia, Ricinus communis, Sesamum indicum, Trifolium augustifolium, Trifolium diffusum, Trifolium hybridum, Trifolium incarnatum, Trifolium ingrescens, Trifolium pratense, Trifolium repens, Trifolium resupinatum, Trifolium subterraneum, Theobroma cacao, Trifolium alexandrinum, Trigonella foenumgraecum, Vicia angustifolia, Vicia atropurpurea, Vicia calcarata, Vicia dasycarpa, Vicia ervilia, Vaccinium oxycoccos, Vicia pannonica, Vigna sesquipedalis, Vigna sinensis, Vicia villosa, Vicki faba, Vicia sative and Vigna angularis.

Preferred monocotyledonous genera include: Agropyron, Allium, Alopecurus, Andropogon, Arrhenatherum, Asparagus, Avena, Bambusa, Bothrichloa, Bouteloua, Bromus, Calamovilfa, Cenchrus, Chloris, Cymbopogon, Cynodon, Dactylis, Dichanthium, Digitaria, Eleusine, Eragrostis, Fagopyrum, Festuca, Helianthus, Hordeum, Lolium, Miscanthis, Miscanthus×giganteus, Oryza, Panicum, Paspalum, Pennisetum, Phalaris, Phleum, Poa, Saccharum, Secale, Setaria, Sorgahastum, Sorghum, Triticum, Vanilla, X Triticosecale Triticale and Zea.

Preferred monocotyledonous species include: Agropyron cristatum, Agropyron desertorum, Agropyron elongatum, Agropyron intermedium, Agropyron smithii, Agropyron spicatum, Agropyron trachycaulum, Agropyron trichophorum, Allium ascalonicum, Allium cepa, Allium chinense, Allium porrum, Allium schoenoprasum, Allium. fistulosum, Allium. sativum, Alopecurus pratensis, Andropogon gerardi, Andropogon Gerardii, Andropogon scoparious, Arrhenatherum elatius, Asparagus officinalis, Avena nuda, Avena sativa, Bambusa vulgaris, Bothrichloa barbinodis, Bothrichloa ischaemum, Bothrichloa saccharoides, Bouteloua curipendula, Bouteloua eriopoda, Bouteloua gracilis, Bromus erectus, Bromus inermis, Bromus riparius, Calamovilfa longifilia, Cenchrus ciliaris, Chloris gayana, Cymbopogon nardus, Cynodon dactylon, Dactylis glomerata, Dichanthium annulatum, Dichanthium aristatum, Dichanthium sericeum, Digitaria decumbens, Digitaria smutsii, Eleusine coracan, Elymus angustus, Elymus junceus, Eragrostis curvula, Eragrostis tef, Fagopyrum esculentum, Fagopyrum tataricum, Festuca arundinacea, Festuca ovina, Festuca pratensis, Festuca rubra, Helianthus annuus sunflower, Hordeum distichum, Hordeum vulgare, Lolium multiflorum, Lolium perenne, Miscanthis sinensis, Miscanthus×giganteus, Oryza sativa, Panicum italicium, Panicum maximum, Panicum miliaceum, Panicum purpurascens, Panicum virgatum, Panicum virgatum, Paspalum dilatatum, Paspalum notatum, Pennisetum clandestinum, Pennisetum glaucum, Pennisetum purpureum, Pennisetum spicatum, Phalaris arundinacea, Phleum bertolinii, Phleum pratense, Poa fendleriana, Poa pratensis, Poa. nemoralis, Saccharum officinarum, Saccharum robustum, Saccharum sinense, Saccharum spontaneum, Secale cereale, Setaria sphacelata, Sorgahastum nutans, Sorghastrum nutans, Sorghum dochna, Sorghum halepense, Sorghum sudanense, Sorghum bicolor, Triticum aestivum, Triticum dicoccum, Triticum durum, Triticum monococcum, Vanilla fragrans, X Triticosecale and Zea mays.

Preferred plants are forage plant species from a group comprising but not limited to the following genera: Lolium, Festuca, Dactylis, Bromus, Trifolium, Medicago, Phleum, Phalaris, Holcus, Lotus, Plantago and Cichorium.

Particularly preferred plants are from the genera Lolium and Trifolium. Particularly preferred species are Lolium perenne and Trifolium repens.

Particularly preferred monocotyledonous plant species are: Lolium perenne and Oryza sativa.

The term “plant” is intended to include a whole plant, any part of a plant, propagules and progeny of a plant.

The term ‘propagule’ means any part of a plant that may be used in reproduction or propagation, either sexual or asexual, including seeds and cuttings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be better understood with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows an alignment of polypeptides of the invention, including SEQ ID NO: 4 and sequences which are variants SEQ ID NO: 4 from several species and illustrates a consensus region (shown within bold box) identified by the applicants which is present in all of the such sequences.

FIG. 2 shows an alignment of polypeptides of the invention, including SEQ ID NO: 4 and sequences which are variants SEQ ID NO: 4 from several dicotyledonous species and illustrates a consensus region (shown within bold box) identified by the applicants which is present in all of the such sequences.

FIG. 3 shows an alignment of polypeptides of the invention, including SEQ ID NO: 4 and sequences which are variants SEQ ID NO: 4 from several monocotyledonous species and illustrates a consensus region (shown within bold box) identified by the applicants which is present in all of the such sequences.

FIG. 4 shows an alignment of polypeptides of the invention, including SEQ ID NO: 163 and sequences which are variants SEQ ID NO: 163 from several species and illustrates a consensus region (shown within bold box) identified by the applicants which is present in all of the such sequences.

FIG. 5 shows an alignment of polypeptides of the invention, including SEQ ID NO: 163 and sequences which are variants SEQ ID NO: 163 from several dicotyledonous species and illustrates a consensus region (shown within bold box) identified by the applicants which is present in all of the such sequences.

FIG. 6 shows an alignment of polypeptides of the invention, including SEQ ID NO: 163 and sequences which are variants SEQ ID NO: 163 from several monocotyledonous species and illustrates a consensus region (shown within bold box) identified by the applicants which is present in all of the such sequences.

FIG. 7 shows a map of a vector, for plant transformation, comprising ORF4 (SEQ ID NO:82) driven by the ryegrass promoter of SEQ ID NO:239.

FIG. 8 shows the sequence of a vector, for plant transformation, comprising ORF4 and corresponding to the map in FIG. 7. Sequence in bold corresponds to the Lolium perenne promoter (SEQ ID NO:239). Sequence in italics corresponds to ORF4. Sequence underlined corresponds to 3′ terminator sequence from CaMV35S gene. Sequence in regular font corresponds to vector sequence.

FIG. 9 shows a map of a vector, for plant transformation, comprising ORF12 (SEQ ID NO:201) driven by the ryegrass promoter of SEQ ID NO:243

FIG. 10 shows the sequence of a vector, for plant transformation, comprising ORF12 and corresponding to the map in FIG. 9. Sequence in bold corresponds to the Lolium perenne promoter (SEQ ID NO:239). Sequence in italics corresponds to ORF12. Sequence underlined corresponds to the 3′ terminator sequence from CaMV35S gene. Sequence in regular font corresponds to vector sequence.

FIG. 11 shows a map of a vector, for plant transformation, comprising ORF4 (SEQ ID NO:82) driven by the double CaMV35S promoter.

FIG. 12 shows the sequence of a vector, for plant transformation, comprising ORF4 (SEQ ID NO: 82) and corresponding to the map in FIG. 11. Sequence in bold corresponds to the double CaMV35S promoter. Sequence in italics corresponds to ORF4 (SEQ ID NO: 82). Sequence underlined corresponds to 3′ terminator sequence from CaMV35S gene. Sequence in regular font corresponds to vector sequence.

FIG. 13 shows a map of a vector, for plant transformation, comprising ORF12 (SEQ ID NO:201) driven by the double CaMV35S promoter.

FIG. 14 shows the sequence of a vector, for plant transformation, comprising ORF12 (SEQ ID NO:201) and corresponding to the map in FIG. 13. Sequence in bold corresponds to the double CaMV35S promoter. Sequence in italics corresponds to ORF12 (SEQ ID NO: 201). Sequence underlined corresponds to the 3′ terminator sequence from CaMV35S gene. Sequence in regular font corresponds to vector sequence.

FIG. 15 shows measurements of Electron Transfer Rate (ETR) and Quantum Yield of PSII (Quantum yield), measured with PAM2000, in the leaves of transgenic (C4-14, D4-5, D4-7, D4-32, D12-58, D12-60 and D12-61) and non-transgenic (TC2) perennial ryegrass lines

FIG. 16 shows phenotypic response at recovery stage following two cycles of drought (4-h drought, 6-days recovery, 8-hour drought, 20-h recovery) in transgenic (D4-5 bottom left, D12-58—above D4-5, and D4-7—above TC2) and non-transgenic (TC2—bottom right) perennial ryegrass lines

FIG. 17 shows phenotypic response of transgenic ryegrass lines (D4-1, D4-7, D12-60 and D12-61) in comparison to a non-transgenic line wildtype) at the end of 14-day drought-stress (left) and at the end of 1-day recovery from drought-stress (right)

FIG. 18 shows measurement of Volumetric Water Content (VWC) of the soil during the experimental stage in the SUNLIT chamber as measured with a TDR300.

FIG. 19 shows phenotypic response of transgenic and non-transgenic ryegrass lines in the SUNLIT chamber after 54 days of sub-surface irrigation

FIG. 20 shows measurements of Electron Transfer Rate (ETR) in the leaves of transgenic (C4-19, C4-20, D12-60, D12-61, D4-1 and D4-7) and non-transgenic (WT) perennial ryegrass lines grown in the SUNLIT chamber before drought-stress (white column) and at the end of the drought-stress (black column)

FIG. 21 shows measurements of Quantum Yield of PSII (Yield) in the leaves of transgenic (C4-19, C4-20, D12-60, D12-61, D4-1 and D4-7) and non-transgenic (WT) perennial ryegrass lines grown in the SUNLIT chamber before drought-stress (white column) and at the end of the drought-stress (black column)

FIG. 22 shows measurement of above ground biomass (dark bars represent fresh weight and light bars represent dry weight) and % mass loss, two days after re-watering, post drought regime for transgenic (C4-19, C4-20, D12-60, D12-61, D4-1 and D4-7) and non-transgenic (WT) perennial ryegrass lines.

FIG. 23 shows newly produced above ground biomass during the during the drought screen, for transgenic (C4-19, C4-20, D12-60, D12-61, D4-1 and D4-7) and non-transgenic (WT) perennial ryegrass lines.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The term “plant” is intended to include a whole plant, any part of a plant, propagules and progeny of a plant.

The term ‘propagule’ means any part of a plant that may be used in reproduction or propagation, either sexual or asexual, including seeds and cuttings.

The term “tolerance or tolerant to drought stress” is intended to describe a plant or plants which perform more favourably in any aspect of their growth and development under sub-optimal hydration conditions than do suitable control plants in the same conditions.

The term “tolerance or tolerant to cold stress” is intended to describe a plant or plants which perform more favourably in any aspect of their growth and development under sub-optimal-reduced reduced temperature conditions than suitable control plants in the same conditions.

The term “tolerance or tolerant to freezing stress” is intended to describe a plant or plants which perform more favourably in any aspect of their growth and development under temperature conditions of less than or equal to 0° C., than do suitable control plants in the same conditions.

The term “tolerance or tolerant to heat stress” is intended to describe a plant or plants which perform more favourably in any aspect of their growth and development under sub-optimal elevated temperature conditions than do suitable control plants in the same conditions.

The term “tolerance or tolerant to salinity” is intended to describe a plant or plants which perform more favourably in any aspect of their growth and development under sub-optimal elevated salinity conditions than do in the same conditions.

Suitable control plants may include non-transformed plants of the same species and variety, or plants of the same species or variety transformed with a control construct.

With reference to the selection methods of the invention, a plant with increased tolerance to environmental stress refers to a plant, selected from a population of plants, which performs more favourably in any aspect of growth and development under stress conditions than does an average member of the population under the same conditions.

The term “comprising” as used in this specification and claims means “consisting at least in part of”; that is to say when interpreting statements in this specification and claims which include “comprising”, the features prefaced by this term in each statement all need to be present but other features can also be present. Related terms such as “comprise” and “comprised” are to be interpreted in similar manner.

Polynucleotides and Fragments

The term “polynucleotide(s),” as used herein, means a single or double-stranded deoxyribonucleotide or ribonucleotide polymer of any length, and include as non-limiting examples, coding and non-coding sequences of a gene, sense and antisense sequences, exons, introns, genomic DNA, cDNA, pre-mRNA, mRNA, rRNA, siRNA, miRNA, tRNA, ribozymes, recombinant polynucleotides, isolated and purified naturally occurring DNA or RNA sequences, synthetic RNA and DNA sequences, nucleic acid probes, primers, and fragments.

A “fragment” of a polynucleotide sequence provided herein is a subsequence of contiguous nucleotides that is capable of specific hybridization to a target of interest, e.g., a sequence that is at least 15 nucleotides in length. The fragments of the invention comprise 15 nucleotides, preferably at least 20 nucleotides, more preferably at least 30 nucleotides, more preferably at least 50 nucleotides, more preferably at least 50 nucleotides and most preferably at least 60 nucleotides of contiguous nucleotides of a polynucleotide of the invention. A fragment of a polynucleotide sequence can be used in antisense, gene silencing, triple helix or ribozyme technology, or as a primer, a probe, included in a microarray, or used in polynucleotide-based selection methods of the invention.

The term “primer” refers to a short polynucleotide, usually having a free 3′OH group, that is hybridized to a template and used for priming polymerization of a polynucleotide complementary to the target.

The term “probe” refers to a short polynucleotide that is used to detect a polynucleotide sequence, that is complementary to the probe, in a hybridization-based assay. The probe may consist of a “fragment” of a polynucleotide as defined herein.

Polypeptides and Fragments

The term “polypeptide”, as used herein, encompasses amino acid chains of any length, but preferably at least 5 amino acids in length, including full-length proteins, in which amino acid residues are linked by covalent peptide bonds. Polypeptides of the present invention may be purified natural products, or may be produced partially or wholly using recombinant or synthetic techniques. The term may refer to a polypeptide, an aggregate of a polypeptide such as a dimer or other multimer, a fusion polypeptide, a polypeptide fragment, a polypeptide variant, or derivative thereof

A “fragment” of a polypeptide is a subsequence of the polypeptide that performs a function that is required for the biological activity and/or provides three dimensional structure of the polypeptide. The term may refer to a polypeptide, an aggregate of a polypeptide such as a dimer or other multimer, a fusion polypeptide, a polypeptide fragment, a polypeptide variant, or derivative thereof capable of performing the above enzymatic activity.

The term “isolated” as applied to the polynucleotide or polypeptide sequences disclosed herein is used to refer to sequences that are removed from their natural cellular environment. An isolated molecule may be obtained by any method or combination of methods including biochemical, recombinant, and synthetic techniques.

The term “recombinant” refers to a polynucleotide sequence that is removed from sequences that surround it in its natural context and/or is recombined with sequences that are not present in its natural context.

A “recombinant” polypeptide sequence is produced by translation from a “recombinant” polynucleotide sequence.

The term “derived from” with respect to polynucleotides and polypeptides of the invention being “derived from” a particular genera or species, means that the polynucleotide or polypeptide has the same sequence as a polynucleotide or polypeptide found naturally in that genera or species. The polynucleotide or polypeptide which is derived from a genera or species may therefore be produced synthetically or recombinantly.

Variant

As used herein, the term “variant” refers to polynucleotide or polypeptide sequences different from the specifically identified sequences, wherein one or more nucleotides or amino acid residues is deleted, substituted, or added. Variants may be naturally occurring allelic variants, or non-naturally occurring variants. Variants may be from the same or from other species and may encompass homologues, paralogues and orthologues. In certain embodiments, variants of the inventive polypeptides and polynucleotides possess biological activities that are the same or similar to those of the inventive polypeptides or polynucleotides. The term “variant” with reference to polynucleotides and polypeptides encompasses all forms of polynucleotides and polypeptides as defined herein.

Polynucleotide Variants

Variant polynucleotide sequences preferably exhibit at least 50%, more preferably at least 51%, more preferably at least 52%, more preferably at least 53%, more preferably at least 54%, more preferably at least 55%, more preferably at least 56%, more preferably at least 57%, more preferably at least 58%, more preferably at least 59%, more preferably at least 60%, more preferably at least 61%, more preferably at least 62%, more preferably at least 63%, more preferably at least 64%, more preferably at least 65%, more preferably at least 66%, more preferably at least 67%, more preferably at least 68%, more preferably at least 69%, more preferably at least 70%, more preferably at least 71%, more preferably at least 72%, more preferably at least 73%, more preferably at least 74%, more preferably at least 75%, more preferably at least 76%, more preferably at least %, more preferably at least 77%, more preferably at least 78%, more preferably at least 79%, more preferably at least 80%, more preferably at least 81%, more preferably at least 82%, more preferably at least 83%, more preferably at least 84%, more preferably at least 85%, more preferably at least 86%, more preferably at least 87%, more preferably at least 88%, more preferably at least 89%, more preferably at least 90%, more preferably at least 91%, more preferably at least 92%, more preferably at least 93%, more preferably at least 94%, more preferably at least 95%, more preferably at least 96%, more preferably at least 97%, more preferably at least 98%, and most preferably at least 99% identity to a specified polynucleotide sequence. Identity is found over a comparison window of at least 20 nucleotide positions, preferably at least 50 nucleotide positions, more preferably at least 100 nucleotide positions, and most preferably over the entire length of the specified polynucleotide sequence.

Polynucleotide sequence identity can be determined in the following manner. The subject polynucleotide sequence is compared to a candidate polynucleotide sequence using BLASTN (from the BLAST suite of programs, version 2.2.5 [November 2002]) in bl2seq (Tatiana A. Tatusova, Thomas L. Madden (1999), “Blast 2 sequences—a new tool for comparing protein and nucleotide sequences”, FEMS Microbiol Lett. 174:247-250), which is publicly available from NCBI (ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/blast/). The default parameters of bl2seq are utilized except that filtering of low complexity parts should be turned off

The identity of polynucleotide sequences may be examined using the following UNIX command line parameters:

-   -   bl2seq nucleotideseq1 -j nucleotideseq2 -F F -p blastn

The parameter -F F turns off filtering of low complexity sections. The parameter -p selects the appropriate algorithm for the pair of sequences. The bl2seq program reports sequence identity as both the number and percentage of identical nucleotides in a line “Identities=”.

Polynucleotide sequence identity may also be calculated over the entire length of the overlap between a candidate and subject polynucleotide sequences using global sequence alignment programs (e.g. Needleman, S. B. and Wunsch, C. D. (1970) J. Mol. Biol. 48, 443-453). A full implementation of the Needleman-Wunsch global alignment algorithm is found in the needle program in the EMBOSS package (Rice, P. Longden, I. and Bleasby, A. EMBOSS: The European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite, Trends in Genetics June 2000, vol 16, No 6. pp. 276-277) which can be obtained from http://www.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk/Software/EMBOSS/. The European Bioinformatics Institute server also provides the facility to perform EMBOSS-needle global alignments between two sequences on line at http:/www.ebi.ac.uk/emboss/align/.

Alternatively the GAP program may be used which computes an optimal global alignment of two sequences without penalizing terminal gaps. GAP is described in the following paper: Huang, X. (1994) On Global Sequence Alignment. Computer Applications in the Biosciences 10, 227-235.

Polynucleotide variants of the present invention also encompass those which exhibit a similarity to one or more of the specifically identified sequences that is likely to preserve the functional equivalence of those sequences and which could not reasonably be expected to have occurred by random chance. Such sequence similarity with respect to polynucleotides may be determined using the publicly available bl2seq program from the BLAST suite of programs (version 2.2.5 [November 2002]) from NCBI (ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/blast/).

The similarity of polynucleotide sequences may be examined using the following UNIX command line parameters:

-   -   bl2seq -i nucleotideseq1 -j nucleotideseq2 -F F -p tblastx

The parameter -F F turns off filtering of low complexity sections. The parameter -p selects the appropriate algorithm for the pair of sequences. This program finds regions of similarity between the sequences and for each such region reports an “E value” which is the expected number of times one could expect to see such a match by chance in a database of a fixed reference size containing random sequences. The size of this database is set by default in the bl2seq program. For small E values, much less than one, the E value is approximately the probability of such a random match.

Variant polynucleotide sequences preferably exhibit an E value of less than 1×10⁻¹⁰ more preferably less than 1×10⁻²⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻³⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻⁴⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻⁵⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻⁶⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻⁷⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻⁸⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻⁹⁰ and most preferably less than 1×10⁻¹⁰⁰ when compared with any one of the specifically identified sequences.

Alternatively, variant polynucleotides of the present invention hybridize to a specified polynucleotide sequence, or complements thereof under stringent conditions.

The term “hybridize under stringent conditions”, and grammatical equivalents thereof, refers to the ability of a polynucleotide molecule to hybridize to a target polynucleotide molecule (such as a target polynucleotide molecule immobilized on a DNA or RNA blot, such as a Southern blot or Northern blot) under defined conditions of temperature and salt concentration. The ability to hybridize under stringent hybridization conditions can be determined by initially hybridizing under less stringent conditions then increasing the stringency to the desired stringency.

With respect to polynucleotide molecules greater than about 100 bases in length, typical stringent hybridization conditions are no more than 25 to 30° C. (for example, 10° C.) below the melting temperature (Tm) of the native duplex (see generally, Sambrook et al., Eds, 1987, Molecular Cloning, A Laboratory Manual, 2nd Ed. Cold Spring Harbor Press; Ausubel et al., 1987, Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Greene Publishing). Tm for polynucleotide molecules greater than about 100 bases can be calculated by the formula Tm=81.5+0.41% (G+C-log (Na+). (Sambrook et al., Eds, 1987, Molecular Cloning, A Laboratory Manual, 2nd Ed. Cold Spring Harbor Press; Bolton and McCarthy, 1962, PNAS 84:1390). Typical stringent conditions for polynucleotide of greater than 100 bases in length would be hybridization conditions such as prewashing in a solution of 6×SSC, 0.2% SDS; hybridizing at 65° C., 6×SSC, 0.2% SDS overnight; followed by two washes of 30 minutes each in 1×SSC, 0.1% SDS at 65° C. and two washes of 30 minutes each in 0.2×SSC, 0.1% SDS at 65° C.

With respect to polynucleotide molecules having a length less than 100 bases, exemplary stringent hybridization conditions are 5 to 10° C. below Tm. On average, the Tm of a polynucleotide molecule of length less than 100 by is reduced by approximately (500/oligonucleotide length)° C.

With respect to the DNA mimics known as peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) (Nielsen et al., Science. 1991 Dec. 6; 254(5037):1497-500) Tm values are higher than those for DNA-DNA or DNA-RNA hybrids, and can be calculated using the formula described in Giesen et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 1998 Nov. 1; 26(21):5004-6. Exemplary stringent hybridization conditions for a DNA-PNA hybrid having a length less than 100 bases are 5 to 10° C. below the Tm.

Variant polynucleotides of the present invention also encompasses polynucleotides that differ from the sequences of the invention but that, as a consequence of the degeneracy of the genetic code, encode a polypeptide having similar activity to a polypeptide encoded by a polynucleotide of the present invention. A sequence alteration that does not change the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide is a “silent variation”. Except for ATG (methionine) and TGG (tryptophan), other codons for the same amino acid may be changed by art recognized techniques, e.g., to optimize codon expression in a particular host organism.

Polynucleotide sequence alterations resulting in conservative substitutions of one or several amino acids in the encoded polypeptide sequence without significantly altering its biological activity are also included in the invention. A skilled artisan will be aware of methods for making phenotypically silent amino acid substitutions (see, e.g., Bowie et al., 1990, Science 247, 1306).

Variant polynucleotides due to silent variations and conservative substitutions in the encoded polypeptide sequence may be determined using the publicly available bl2seq program from the BLAST suite of programs (version 2.2.5 [November 2002]) from NCBI (ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/blast/) via the tblastx algorithm as previously described.

Polypeptide Variants

The term “variant” with reference to polypeptides encompass naturally occurring, recombinantly and synthetically produced polypeptides. Variant polypeptide sequences preferably exhibit at least 50%, more perferably at least 51%, more preferably at least 52%, more preferably at least 53%, more preferably at least 54%, more preferably at least 55%, more preferably at least 56%, more preferably at least 57%, more preferably at least 58%, more preferably at least 59%, more preferably at least 60%, more preferably at least 61%, more preferably at least 62%, more preferably at least 63%, more preferably at least 64%, more preferably at least 65%, more preferably at least 66%, more preferably at least 67%, more preferably at least 68%, more preferably at least 69%, more preferably at least 70%, more preferably at least 71%, more preferably at least 72%, more preferably at least 73%, more preferably at least 74%, more preferably at least 75%, more preferably at least 76%, more preferably at least 77%, more preferably at least 78%, more preferably at least 79%, more preferably at least 80%, more preferably at least 81%, more preferably at least 82%, more preferably at least 83%, more preferably at least 84%, more preferably at least 85%, more preferably at least 86%, more preferably at least 87%, more preferably at least 88%, more preferably at least 89%, more preferably at least 90%, more preferably at least 91%, more preferably at least 92%, more preferably at least 93%, more preferably at least 94%, more preferably at least 95%, more preferably at least 96%, more preferably at least 97%, more preferably at least 98%, and most preferably at least 99% identity to a sequences of the present invention. Identity is found over a comparison window of at least 20 amino acid positions, preferably at least 50 amino acid positions, more preferably at least 100 amin acid positions, and most preferably over the entir length of the specified polypeptide sequence.

Polypeptide sequence identity can be determined in the following manner. The subject polypeptide sequence is compared to a canidate polypeptide sequence using publicly available from NCBI (ftp://ftp.nvbi.nih.gov/blast/). The default parameters of bl2seq are utilized except that filtering of loq complexity regions should be turned off.

Polypeptide sequence identity may also be calculated over the entire length of the overlap between a canidate and subject polynucleotide sequences using global sequence alignment programs EMBOSS-needle (available at http:/www.ebi.ac.uk/emboss/align/) and GAP (Huang, X. (1994) On Global Sequence Alignment. Computer Applications in the Biosciences 10, 227-235.) as discussed above are also suitable global sequence alignment programs for calculating polypeptide sequence identity.

Polypeptide variants of the present invention also encompass those which exhibit a similarity to one or more of the specifically identified sequences that is likely to preserve the functional equivalence of those sequences and which could not reasonably be expected to have occurred by random chance. Such sequence similarity with respect to polypeptides may be determined using the publicly available bl2seq program from the BLAST suite of programs (version 2.2.5 [November 2002]) from NCBI (ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/blast/). The similarity of polypeptide sequences may be examined using the following UNIX command line parameters:

-   -   bl2seq -i peptideseq1 -j peptideseq2 -F F -p blastp

Variant polypeptide sequences preferably exhibit an E value of less than 1×10⁻¹⁰ more preferably less than 1×10⁻²⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻³⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻⁴⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻⁵⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻⁶⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻⁷⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻⁸⁰, more preferably less than 1×10⁻⁹⁰ and most preferably less than 1×10⁻¹⁰⁰ when compared with any one of the specifically identified sequences.

The parameter -F F turns off filtering of low complexity sections. The parameter -p selects the appropriate algorithm for the pair of sequences. This program finds regions of similarity between the sequences and for each such region reports an “E value” which is the expected number of times one could expect to see such a match by chance in a database of a fixed reference size containing random sequences. For small E values, much less than one, this is approximately the probability of such a random match.

Conservative substitutions of one or several amino acids of a described polypeptide sequence without significantly altering its biological activity are also included in the invention. A skilled artisan will be aware of methods for making phenotypically silent amino acid substitutions (see, e.g., Bowie et al., 1990, Science 247, 1306).

Constructs, Vectors and Components Thereof

The term “genetic construct” refers to a polynucleotide molecule, usually double-stranded DNA, which may have inserted into it another polynucleotide molecule (the insert polynucleotide molecule) such as, but not limited to, a cDNA molecule. A genetic construct may contain the necessary elements that permit transcribing the insert polynucleotide molecule, and, optionally, translating the transcript into a polypeptide. The insert polynucleotide molecule may be derived from the host cell, or may be derived from a different cell or organism and/or may be a recombinant polynucleotide. Once inside the host cell the genetic construct may become integrated in the host chromosomal DNA. The genetic construct may be linked to a vector.

The term “vector” refers to a polynucleotide molecule, usually double stranded DNA, which is used to transport the genetic construct into a host cell. The vector may be capable of replication in at least one additional host system, such as E. coli.

The term “expression construct” refers to a genetic construct that includes the necessary elements that permit transcribing the insert polynucleotide molecule, and, optionally, translating the transcript into a polypeptide. An expression construct typically comprises in a 5′ to 3′ direction:

-   -   a) a promoter functional in the host cell into which the         construct will be transformed,     -   b) the polynucleotide to be expressed, and     -   c) a terminator functional in the host cell into which the         construct will be transformed.

The term “coding region” or “open reading frame” (ORF) refers to the sense strand of a genomic DNA sequence or a cDNA sequence that is capable of producing a transcription product and/or a polypeptide under the control of appropriate regulatory sequences. The coding sequence is identified by the presence of a 5′ translation start codon and a 3′ translation stop codon. When inserted into a genetic construct, a “coding sequence” is capable of being expressed when it is operably linked to promoter and terminator sequences.

“Operably-linked” means that the sequenced to be expressed is placed under the control of regulatory elements that include promoters, tissue-specific regulatory elements, temporal regulatory elements, enhancers, repressors and terminators.

The term “noncoding region” refers to untranslated sequences that are upstream of the translational start site and downstream of the translational stop site. These sequences are also referred to respectively as the 5′ UTR and the 3′ UTR. These regions include elements required for transcription initiation and termination and for regulation of translation efficiency.

Terminators are sequences, which terminate transcription, and are found in the 3′ untranslated ends of genes downstream of the translated sequence. Terminators are important determinants of mRNA stability and in some cases have been found to have spatial regulatory functions.

The term “promoter” refers to nontranscribed cis-regulatory elements upstream of the coding region that regulate gene transcription. Promoters comprise cis-initiator elements which specify the transcription initiation site and conserved boxes such as the TATA box, and motifs that are bound by transcription factors.

A “transgene” is a polynucleotide that is taken from one organism and introduced into a different organism by transformation. The transgene may be derived from the same species or from a different species as the species of the organism into which the transgene is introduced.

An “inverted repeat” is a sequence that is repeated, where the second half of the repeat is in the complementary strand, e.g.,

(5′)GATCTA . . . TAGATC(3′) (3′)CTAGAT . . . ATCTAG(5′) Read-through transcription will produce a transcript that undergoes complementary base-pairing to form a hairpin structure provided that there is a 3-5 by spacer between the repeated regions.

A “transgenic plant” refers to a plant which contains new genetic material as a result of genetic manipulation or transformation. The new genetic material may be derived from a plant of the same species as the resulting transgenic plant or from a different species.

The terms “to alter expression of” and “altered expression” of a polynucleotide or polypeptide of the invention, are intended to encompass the situation where genomic DNA corresponding to a polynucleotide of the invention is modified thus leading to altered expression of a polynucleotide or polypeptide of the invention. Modification of the genomic DNA may be through genetic transformation or other methods known in the art for inducing mutations. The “altered expression” can be related to an increase or decrease in the amount of messenger RNA and/or polypeptide produced and may also result in altered activity of a polypeptide due to alterations in the sequence of a polynucleotide and polypeptide produced.

The applicants have identified a polynucleotide from ryegrass (SEQ ID NO: 82) encoding a polypeptide (SEQ ID NO: 4) which modulates in plants, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity. The applicants have also identified polynucleotide variants of SEQ ID NO: 82 (SEQ ID NOs: 83-159) encoding polypeptide variants of SEQ ID NOs: 4 (SEQ ID NOs: 5-81) which modulate in plants, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity. The applicants identified consensus sequences (SEQ ID NO:1) present in all of polypeptides encoded by such polynucleotides, as shown in FIG. 1. Further the applicants have identified a consensus sequence (SEQ ID NO:2) specific to dicotyledonous polypeptide sequences (FIG. 2) and a consensus sequence (SEQ ID NO:3) specific to monocotyledonous sequences (FIG. 3).

The applicants have identified a polynucleotide from ryegrass (SEQ ID NO:201) encoding a polypeptide (SEQ ID NO: 163) which modulates in plants, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity. The applicants have also identified polynucleotide variants of SEQ ID NO: 201 (SEQ ID NOs: 202-238) encoding polypeptide variants of SEQ ID NOs: 163 (SEQ ID NOs: 164-200) which modulate in plants, tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity. The applicants identified consensus sequences (SEQ ID NO:160) present in all of polypeptides encoded by such polynucleotides, as shown in FIG. 4. Further the applicants have identified a consensus sequence (SEQ ID NO:161) specific to dicotyledonous polypeptide sequences (FIG. 5) and a consensus sequence (SEQ ID NO:162) specific to monocotyledonous sequences (FIG. 6).

The invention provides plants altered relative to wild-type plants in tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity. The invention provides both plants with both increased tolerance to the above and plants with decreased tolerance to above characteristic stresses. The invention also provides methods for the production or selection of such plants.

The polynucleotide molecules of the invention can be isolated by using a variety of techniques known to those of ordinary skill in the art. By way of example, such polynucleotides can be isolated through use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) described in Mullis et al., Eds. 1994 The Polymerase Chain Reaction, Birkhauser, incorporated herein by reference. The polynucleotides of the invention can be amplified using primers, as defined herein, derived from the polynucleotide sequences of the invention.

The polynucleotide fragments of the invention may be produced by techniques well-known in the art such as restriction endonuclease digestion and oligonucleotide synthesis.

A partial polynucleotide sequence may be used, in methods well-known in the art to identify the corresponding full length polynucleotide sequence. Such methods would include PCR-based methods, 5′RACE (Frohman Mass., 1993, Methods Enzymol. 218: 340-56) and hybridization-based method, computer/database-based methods. Further, by way of example, inverse PCR permits acquisition of unknown sequences, flanking the polynucleotide sequences disclosed herein, starting with primers based on a known region (Triglia et al., 1998, Nucleic Acids Res 16, 8186, incorporated herein by reference). The method uses several restriction enzymes to generate a suitable fragment in the known region of a gene. The fragment is then circularized by intramolecular ligation and used as a PCR template. Divergent primers are designed from the known region. In order to physically assemble full-length clones, standard molecular biology approaches can be utilized (Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2nd Ed. Cold Spring Harbor Press, 1987).

It may be beneficial, when producing a transgenic plant from a particular species, to transform such a plant with a sequence or sequences derived from that species. The benefit may be to alleviate public concerns regarding cross-species transformation in generating transgenic organisms. Additionally when down-regulation of a gene is the desired result, it may be necessary to utilise a sequence identical (or at least highly similar) to that in the plant, for which reduced expression is desired. For these reasons among others, it is desirable to be able to identify and isolate orthologues of a particular gene in several different plant species. Variants (including orthologues) may be identified by the methods described.

Methods for Identifying Variants Physical Methods

Variant polynucleotides may be identified using PCR-based methods (Mullis et al., Eds. 1994 The Polymerase Chain Reaction, Birkhauser). Typically, the polynucleotide sequence of a primer, useful to amplify variant polynucleotide molecules by PCR, may be based on a sequence encoding a conserved region of the corresponding amino acid sequence.

Alternatively library screening methods will be known to those skilled in the art (Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2nd Ed. Cold Spring Harbor Press, 1987) may be employed. When identifying variants of the probe sequence hybridisation and/or wash stringency conditions will typically be reduced relative to when exact sequence matches are sought.

Polypeptide variants of the invention may be identified by physical methods, for example by screening expression libraries using antibodies raised against polypeptides of the invention (Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2nd Ed. Cold Spring Harbor Press, 1987) or by identifying polypeptides from natural sources with the aid of such antibodies.

Computer Based Methods

The variant sequences of the invention, including both polynucleotide and polypeptide variants, may also be identified by computer-based methods well-known to those skilled in the art, using public domain sequence alignment algorithms and sequence similarity search tools to search sequence databases (public domain databases include Genbank, EMBL, Swiss-Prot, PIR and others). See, e.g., Nucleic Acids Res. 29: 1-10 and 11-16, 2001 for examples of online resources. Similarity searches retrieve and align target sequences for comparison with a sequence to be analyzed (i.e., a query sequence). Sequence comparison algorithms use scoring matrices to assign an overall score to each of the alignments.

An exemplary family of programs useful for identifying variants in sequence databases is the BLAST suite of programs (version 2.2.5 [November 2002]) including BLASTN, BLASTP, BLASTX, tBLASTN and tBLASTX, which are publicly available from (ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/blast/) or from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), National Library of Medicine, Building 38A, Room 8N805, Bethesda, Md. 20894 USA. The NCBI server also provides the facility to use the programs to screen a number of publicly available sequence databases. BLASTN compares a nucleotide query sequence against a nucleotide sequence database. BLASTP compares an amino acid query sequence against a protein sequence database. BLASTX compares a nucleotide query sequence translated in all reading frames against a protein sequence database. tBLASTN compares a protein query sequence against a nucleotide sequence database dynamically translated in all reading frames. tBLASTX compares the six-frame translations of a nucleotide query sequence against the six-frame translations of a nucleotide sequence database. The BLAST programs may be used with default parameters or the parameters may be altered as required to refine the screen.

The use of the BLAST family of algorithms, including BLASTN, BLASTP, and BLASTX, is described in the publication of Altschul et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 25: 3389-3402, 1997.

The “hits” to one or more database sequences by a queried sequence produced by BLASTN, BLASTP, BLASTX, tBLASTN, tBLASTX, or a similar algorithm, align and identify similar portions of sequences. The hits are arranged in order of the degree of similarity and the length of sequence overlap. Hits to a database sequence generally represent an overlap over only a fraction of the sequence length of the queried sequence.

The BLASTN, BLASTP, BLASTX, tBLASTN and tBLASTX algorithms also produce “Expect” values for alignments. The Expect value (E) indicates the number of hits one can “expect” to see by chance when searching a database of the same size containing random contiguous sequences. The Expect value is used as a significance threshold for determining whether the hit to a database indicates true similarity. For example, an E value of 0.1 assigned to a polynucleotide hit is interpreted as meaning that in a database of the size of the database screened, one might expect to see 0.1 matches over the aligned portion of the sequence with a similar score simply by chance. For sequences having an E value of 0.01 or less over aligned and matched portions, the probability of finding a match by chance in that database is 1% or less using the BLASTN, BLASTP, BLASTX, tBLASTN or tBLASTX algorithm.

Multiple sequence alignments of a group of related sequences can be carried out with CLUSTALW (Thompson, J. D., Higgins, D. G. and Gibson, T. J. (1994) CLUSTALW: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, positions-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Research, 22:4673-4680, http://www-igbmc.u-strasbg.fr/BioInfo/ClustalW/Top.html) or T-COFFEE (Cedric Notredame, Desmond G. Higgins, Jaap Heringa, T-Coffee: A novel method for fast and accurate multiple sequence alignment, J. Mol. Biol. (2000) 302: 205-217)) or PILEUP, which uses progressive, pairwise alignments. (Feng and Doolittle, 1987, J. Mol. Evol. 25, 351).

Pattern recognition software applications are available for finding motifs or signature sequences. For example, MEME (Multiple Em for Motif Elicitation) finds motifs and signature sequences in a set of sequences, and MAST (Motif Alignment and Search Tool) uses these motifs to identify similar or the same motifs in query sequences. The MAST results are provided as a series of alignments with appropriate statistical data and a visual overview of the motifs found. MEME and MAST were developed at the University of California, San Diego.

PROSITE (Bairoch and Bucher, 1994, Nucleic Acids Res. 22, 3583; Hofmann et al., 1999, Nucleic Acids Res. 27, 215) is a method of identifying the functions of uncharacterized proteins translated from genomic or cDNA sequences. The PROSITE database (www.expasy.org/prosite) contains biologically significant patterns and profiles and is designed so that it can be used with appropriate computational tools to assign a new sequence to a known family of proteins or to determine which known domain(s) are present in the sequence (Falquet et al., 2002, Nucleic Acids Res. 30, 235). Prosearch is a tool that can search SWISS-PROT and EMBL databases with a given sequence pattern or signature.

The function of a variant polynucleotide of the invention in modulating tolerance to environmental stresses in a plant may be assessed by expressing the polynucleotide in a plant and for example, analyzing the effect on stress tolerance by methods provided in the Example section. Further plant transformation protocols for several species are known to those skilled in the art. A list of such protocols is provided herein.

Methods for Isolating Polypeptides

The polypeptides of the invention, including variant polypeptides, may be prepared using peptide synthesis methods well known in the art such as direct peptide synthesis using solid phase techniques (e.g. Stewart et al., 1969, in Solid-Phase Peptide Synthesis, WH Freeman Co, San Francisco Calif., or automated synthesis, for example using an Applied Biosystems 431A Peptide Synthesizer (Foster City, California). Mutated forms of the polypeptides may also be produced during such syntheses.

The polypeptides and variant polypeptides of the invention may also be purified from natural sources using a variety of techniques that are well known in the art (e.g. Deutscher, 1990, Ed, Methods in Enzymology, Vol. 182, Guide to Protein Purification).

Alternatively the polypeptides and variant polypeptides of the invention may be expressed recombinantly in suitable host cells and separated from the cells as discussed below.

Methods for Producing Constructs and Vectors

The genetic constructs of the present invention comprise one or more polynucleotide sequences of the invention and/or polynucleotides encoding polypeptides of the invention, and may be useful for transforming, for example, bacterial, fungal, insect, mammalian or plant organisms. The genetic constructs of the invention are intended to include expression constructs as herein defined.

Methods for producing and using genetic constructs and vectors are well known in the art and are described generally in Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2nd Ed. Cold Spring Harbor Press, 1987; Ausubel et al., Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Greene Publishing, 1987).

Methods for Producing Host Cells Comprising Constructs and Vectors

The invention provides a host cell which comprises a genetic construct or vector of the invention. Host cells may be derived from, for example, bacterial, fungal, insect, mammalian or plant organisms.

Host cells comprising genetic constructs, such as expression constructs, of the invention are useful in methods well known in the art (e.g. Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2nd Ed. Cold Spring Harbor Press, 1987; Ausubel et al., Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Greene Publishing, 1987) for recombinant production of polypeptides of the invention. Such methods may involve the culture of host cells in an appropriate medium in conditions suitable for or conducive to expression of a polypeptide of the invention. The expressed recombinant polypeptide, which may optionally be secreted into the culture, may then be separated from the medium, host cells or culture medium by methods well known in the art (e.g. Deutscher, Ed, 1990, Methods in Enzymology, Vol 182, Guide to Protein Purification).

Methods for Producing Plant Cells and Plants Comprising Constructs and Vectors

The invention further provides plant cells which comprise a genetic construct of the invention, and plant cells modified to alter expression of a polynucleotide or polypeptide of the invention. Plants comprising such cells also form an aspect of the invention.

Tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity in a plant, may also be altered through methods of the invention. Such methods may involve the transformation of plant cells and plants, with a construct of the invention designed to alter expression of a polynucleotide or polypeptide which modulates for example, tolerance to drought stress, in such plant cells and plants. Such methods also include the transformation of plant cells and plants with a combination of the construct of the invention and one or more other constructs designed to alter expression of one or more polynucleotides or polypeptides which modulate for example, tolerance to drought stress in such plant cells and plants.

Methods for transforming plant cells, plants and portions thereof with polynucleotides are described in Draper et al., 1988, Plant Genetic Transformation and Gene Expression. A Laboratory Manual, Blackwell Sci. Pub. Oxford, p. 365; Potrykus and Spangenberg, 1995, Gene Transfer to Plants. Springer-Verlag, Berlin; and Gelvin et al., 1993, Plant Molecular Biol. Manual. Kluwer Acad. Pub. Dordrecht. A review of transgenic plants, including transformation techniques, is provided in Galun and Breiman, 1997, Transgenic Plants. Imperial College Press, London.

Methods for Genetic Manipulation of Plants

A number of plant transformation strategies are available (e.g. Birch, 1997, Ann Rev Plant Phys Plant Mol Biol, 48, 297). For example, strategies may be designed to increase expression of a polynucleotide/polypeptide in a plant cell, organ and/or at a particular developmental stage where/when it is normally expressed or to ectopically express a polynucleotide/polypeptide in a cell, tissue, organ and/or at a particular developmental stage which/when it is not normally expressed. The expressed polynucleotide/polypeptide may be derived from the plant species to be transformed or may be derived from a different plant species.

Transformation strategies may be designed to reduce expression of a polynucleotide/polypeptide in a plant cell, tissue, organ or at a particular developmental stage which/when it is normally expressed. Such strategies are known as gene silencing strategies.

Genetic constructs for expression of genes in transgenic plants typically include promoters for driving the expression of one or more cloned polynucleotide, terminators and selectable marker sequences to detest presence of the genetic construct in the transformed plant.

The promoters suitable for use in the constructs of this invention are functional in a cell, tissue or organ of a monocot or dicot plant and include cell-, tissue- and organ-specific promoters, cell cycle specific promoters, temporal promoters, inducible promoters, constitutive promoters that are active in most plant tissues, and recombinant promoters. Choice of promoter will depend upon the temporal and spatial expression of the cloned polynucleotide, so desired. The promoters may be those normally associated with a transgene of interest, or promoters which are derived from genes of other plants, viruses, and plant pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Those skilled in the art will, without undue experimentation, be able to select promoters that are suitable for use in modifying and modulating plant traits using genetic constructs comprising the polynucleotide sequences of the invention. Examples of constitutive plant promoters include the CaMV 35S promoter, the nopaline synthase promoter and the octopine synthase promoter, and the Ubi 1 promoter from maize. Plant promoters which are active in specific tissues, respond to internal developmental signals or external abiotic or biotic stresses are described in the scientific literature. Exemplary promoters are described, e.g., in WO 02/00894, which is herein incorporated by reference.

Exemplary terminators that are commonly used in plant transformation genetic construct include, e.g., the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S terminator, the Agrobacterium tumefaciens nopaline synthase or octopine synthase terminators, the Zea mays zein gene terminator, the Oryza sativa ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase terminator and the Solanum tuberosum PI-II terminator.

Selectable markers commonly used in plant transformation include the neomycin phophotransferase II gene (NPT II) which confers kanamycin resistance, the aadA gene, which confers spectinomycin and streptomycin resistance, the phosphinothricin acetyl transferase (bar gene) for Ignite (AgrEvo) and Basta (Hoechst) resistance, and the hygromycin phosphotransferase gene (hpt) for hygromycin resistance.

Use of genetic constructs comprising reporter genes (coding sequences which express an activity that is foreign to the host, usually an enzymatic activity and/or a visible signal (e.g., luciferase, GUS, GFP) which may be used for promoter expression analysis in plants and plant tissues are also contemplated. The reporter gene literature is reviewed in Herrera-Estrella et al., 1993, Nature 303, 209, and Schrott, 1995, In: Gene Transfer to Plants (Potrykus, T., Spangenberg. Eds) Springer Verlag. Berline, pp. 325-336.

Gene silencing strategies may be focused on the gene itself or regulatory elements which effect expression of the encoded polypeptide. “Regulatory elements” is used here in the widest possible sense and includes other genes which interact with the gene of interest.

Genetic constructs designed to decrease or silence the expression of a polynucleotide/polypeptide of the invention may include an antisense copy of a polynucleotide of the invention. In such constructs the polynucleotide is placed in an antisense orientation with respect to the promoter and terminator.

An “antisense” polynucleotide is obtained by inverting a polynucleotide or a segment of the polynucleotide so that the transcript produced will be complementary to the mRNA transcript of the gene, e.g.,

5′GATCTA 3′ 3′CTAGAT 5′ (coding strand) (antisense strand) 3′CUAGAU 5′ 5′GAUCUA 3′ mRNA antisense RNA

Genetic constructs designed for gene silencing may also include an inverted repeat as herein defined. The preferred approach to achieve this is via RNA-interference strategies using genetic constructs encoding self-complementary “hairpin” RNA (Wesley et al., 2001, Plant Journal, 27: 581-590).

The transcript formed may undergo complementary base pairing to form a hairpin structure. Usually a spacer of at least 3-5 by between the repeated regions is required to allow hairpin formation.

Another silencing approach involves the use of a small antisense RNA targeted to the transcript equivalent to an miRNA (Llave et al., 2002, Science 297, 2053). Use of such small antisense RNA corresponding to polynucleotide of the invention is expressly contemplated.

The term genetic construct as used herein also includes small antisense RNAs and other such polynucleotides effecting gene silencing.

Transformation with an expression construct, as herein defined, may also result in gene silencing through a process known as sense suppression (e.g. Napoli et al., 1990, Plant Cell 2, 279; de Carvalho Niebel et al., 1995, Plant Cell, 7, 347). In some cases sense suppression may involve over-expression of the whole or a partial coding sequence but may also involve expression of non-coding region of the gene, such as an intron or a 5′ or 3′ untranslated region (UTR). Chimeric partial sense constructs can be used to coordinately silence multiple genes (Abbott et al., 2002, Plant Physiol. 128(3): 844-53; Jones et al., 1998, Planta 204: 499-505). The use of such sense suppression strategies to silence the expression of a polynucleotide of the invention is also contemplated.

The polynucleotide inserts in genetic constructs designed for gene silencing may correspond to coding sequence and/or non-coding sequence, such as promoter and/or intron and/or 5′ or 3′ UTR sequence, or the corresponding gene.

Other gene silencing strategies include dominant negative approaches and the use of ribozyme constructs (McIntyre, 1996, Transgenic Res, 5, 257)

Pre-transcriptional silencing may be brought about through mutation of the gene itself or its regulatory elements. Such mutations may include point mutations, frameshifts, insertions, deletions and substitutions.

The following are representative publications disclosing genetic transformation protocols that can be used to genetically transform the following plant species: Rice (Alam et al., 1999, Plant Cell Rep. 18, 572); maize (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,177,010 and 5,981,840); wheat (Ortiz et al., 1996, Plant Cell Rep. 15, 1996, 877); tomato (U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,135); potato (Kumar et al., 1996 Plant J. 9, : 821); cassava (Li et al., 1996 Nat. Biotechnology 14, 736); lettuce (Michelmore et al., 1987, Plant Cell Rep. 6, 439); tobacco (Horsch et al., 1985, Science 227, 1229); cotton (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,846,797 and 5,004,863); grasses (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,187,073 and 6,020,539); peppermint (Niu et al., 1998, Plant Cell Rep. 17, 165); citrus plants (Pena et al., 1995, Plant Sci. 104, 183); caraway (Krens et al., 1997, Plant Cell Rep, 17, 39); banana (U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,935); soybean (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,416,011; 5,569,834; 5,824,877; 5,563,04455 and 5,968,830); pineapple (U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,543); poplar (U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,855); monocots in general (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,591,616 and 6,037,522); brassica (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,188,958; 5,463,174 and 5,750,871); and cereals (U.S. Pat. No. 6,074,877). Other species are contemplated and suitable methods and protocols are available in the scientific literature for use by those skilled in the art.

Several further methods known in the art may be employed to alter expression of a nucleotide and/or polypeptide of the invention. Such methods include but are not limited to Tilling (Till et al., 2003, Methods Mol Biol, 2%, 205), so called “Deletagene” technology (Li et al., 2001, Plant Journal 27(3), 235) and the use of artificial transcription factors such as synthetic zinc finger transcription factors. (e.g. Jouvenot et al., 2003, Gene Therapy 10, 513). Additionally antibodies or fragments thereof, targeted to a particular polypeptide may also be expressed in plants to modulate the activity of that polypeptide (Jobling et al., 2003, Nat. Biotechnol., 21(1), 35). Transposon tagging approaches may also be applied. Additionally peptides interacting with a polypeptide of the invention may be identified through technologies such as phase-display (Dyax Corporation). Such interacting peptides may be expressed in or applied to a plant to affect activity of a polypeptide of the invention. Use of each of the above approaches in alteration of expression of a nucleotide and/or polypeptide of the invention is specifically contemplated.

Methods for Plants

Methods are also provided for selecting plants altered tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity. Such methods involve testing of plants for altered for the expression of a polynucleotide or polypeptide of the invention. Such methods may be applied at a young age or early developmental stage to accelerate breeding programs directed toward at least one of the characteristics described which may not be easily assessed until a later age or developmental stage.

The expression of a polynucleotide, such as a messenger RNA, is often used as an indicator of expression of a corresponding polypeptide. Exemplary methods for measuring the expression of a polynucleotide include but are not limited to Northern analysis, RT-PCR and dot-blot analysis (Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2nd Ed. Cold Spring Harbor Press, 1987). Polynucleotides or portions of the polynucleotides of the invention are thus useful as probes or primers, as herein defined, in methods for the identification of plants with altered tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity. For example an altered level in a plant, of a polypeptide involved in modulating tolerance to drought stress may be used as an indicator of eventual tolerance to drought stress in such a plant. The polynucleotides of the invention may be used as probes in hybridization experiments, or as primers in PCR based experiments, designed to identify such plants.

Alternatively antibodies may be raised against polypeptides of the invention. Methods for raising and using antibodies are standard in the art (see for example: Antibodies, A Laboratory Manual, Harlow A Lane, Eds, Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, 1998). Such antibodies may be used in methods to detect altered expression of polypeptides which modulate flower size in plants. Such methods may include ELISA (Kemeny, 1991, A Practical Guide to ELISA, NY Pergamon Press) and Western analysis (Towbin & Gordon, 1994, J Immunol Methods, 72, 313).

These approaches for analysis of polynucleotide or polypeptide expression and the selection of plants with altered expression are useful in conventional breeding programs designed to produce varieties with altered in tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity.

Plants

The plants of the invention may be grown and either selfed or crossed with a different plant strain and the resulting hybrids, with the desired phenotypic characteristics, may be identified. Two or more generations may be grown to ensure that the subject phenotypic characteristics are stably maintained and inherited. Plants resulting from such standard breeding approaches also form an aspect of the present invention.

Examples

The invention will now be illustrated with reference to the following non-limiting examples.

Example 1 Identification of Polynucleotides Which Modulate Tolerance to Environmental Stresses Introduction

Transcript identification in different tissue and developmental stages is based mainly by the use of EST (expressed sequence tag)-based methods (Adams et al. 1991, Science 252:1651-1656). SAGE (serial analysis of gene expression) (Velculescu et al. 1995, Science 270: 484-487) is a modification of conventional EST methods and has many advantages over that of other methods, such as microarray (Richmond and Somerville 2000, Current Opinion in Plant Biology. 3:108-116). Transcript profiling by SAGE is not limited to studying known genes and is estimated to be 26 times more sensitive than EST method (Sun et al. 2004, BMC Genomics 5: 1.1-1.4). Unlike microarray, SAGE is free from cross-hybridization problem and accurate because of dimer-formation prior to amplification (Ruan et al. 2004, Trends in Biotechnology 22: 23-30.). Alternative splicing of the transcript is a well-known phenomenon, whose impact is not fully understood yet (Lee et al. 2003, PNAS 99:12257-12262). These splice variants can be identified by SAGE. SAGE is also able to detect antisense RNAs, since the orientation of the SAGE tag on the transcripts can be readily determined. Antisense transcripts are likely to represent novel genes whose function may or may not be related to regulation of the expression of the genes transcribed from the sense strand (Chen et al. 2002, Nucleic Acids Res. 31:101-105). Although SAGE is widely used in the analysis of transcriptomes from cancerous human cells, it is not widely applied in other organisms, including plants. To date only a handful of papers have appeared where SAGE has been applied to characterize plant transcriptome, for example; Lee and Lee, 2003 Plant Physiol. 132: 517-529. Most of the plant transcriptome analysed using SAGE has been confined to the two fully sequenced genomes, namely Arabidopsis and rice.

Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) is a cool temperate pasture plant from the family Gramineae and the tribe Festucaceae. To generate a profile of relative gene expression patterns in ryegrass, RNA was extracted from samples obtained from ambient temperature growth, cold grown, hydrated, dehydrated and rehydrated or dehydration pre- and post-grazed plants during autumn, summer, spring and winter, and used for constructing a SAGE library.

Materials and Methods:

Perennial ryegrass (Lohum perenne L.) cv. Bronsyn was used throughout this study. Field grown samples were collected from active paddocks at Dexcel, Hamilton, New Zealand during the peak of each season. Grass samples were collected from pre-grazed (15 days post grazing) and post-grazed (1 day post grazing) ryegrass swards. Tufts of grass samples were harvested from 3-6 randomly chosen sites and stored in dry-ice after snap-freezing with liquid nitrogen. During spring, immature spike and floral initials were also harvested. For stress-treatment, the following conditions were used on lab-grown ryegrass: Mature lab-grown perennial ryegrass that was grown in growth chamber for 15 months at 85% RH, 20° C./18° C. and 16 h/8 h day/night regime; Hydrated control grown for 55 days at 85% RH, 20° C./18° C. and 16 h/8 h day/night regime; 6 days at 70% RH, 22° C./16° C. and 16 h/8 h day/night regime, seedlings were kept watered throughout their life; Dehydrated sample watered only for 55 days at 85% RH, 20° C./18° C. and 16 h/8 h day/night regime; 3 days at 70% RH, 28° C./20° C. and 16 h/8 h day/night regime; 3 days at 50% RH, 28° C./20° C. and 16 h/8 h day/night regime; Rehydrated samples were from dehydrated plants that was watered for 24 hours and grown at 70% RH, 22° C./16° C. and 16 h/8 h day/night regime; Cold-stressed plants were grown for 55 days at 85% RH, 20° C./18° C. and 16 h/8 h day/night regime; 7 days at 70% RH, 22° C./16° C. and 16 h/8h day/night regime; 7 days at 70% RH, 6° C./2° C. and 16 h/8 h day/night regime, seedlings were kept watered throughout their life.

Construction of SAGE Libraries

RNA was extracted using TRIZOL® reagent (Invitrogen, CA, USA) and by the protocol described by the manufacturer from tissue that was ground in liquid nitrogen. For each SAGE library 100 μg of total RNA was used and the libraries were created using I-SAGE™ or I-SAGE™ Long kit (Invitrogen, CA, USA) according to manufacturer's protocol. From each library 960-1,920 clones were sequenced (Australian Genome Research Facility, Brisbane, Australia) and the tags extracted using the SAGE2000 software.

SAGE Bioinformatics:

The relational database was designed to hold tags, libraries and expression counts of the SAGE experiments. Each tag sequence (including enzyme sequence) was searched against the whole Ryegrass non-overlapping Gene thresher and the EST sets. The search was carried out in both direction and used exact match only. Results were loaded to the relational database using General Feature Format (GFF) approach (http://www3.ebi.ac.uk/Services/WebFeat)

All Ryegrass Gene thresher and the EST sequences were annotated using homology searches against some or all the following public and propriety databases:

-   -   AGI TIGR Gene Indices, Arabidopsis, release 11, Jan. 2004     -   OGI TIGR Gene Indices, Rice, release 14-1, Jan. 2004     -   GENESEQN Derwent patent DNA sequences Dec. 7, 2002     -   GENESEQP Derwent patent amino acid sequences Dec. 7, 2002     -   Os_unigene Oryza sativa Unigene unique sequences Mar. 18, 2004     -   est_others Other EST sequences (mammal, fungi, prokaryote) Mar.         11, 2003     -   est_plant Viridiplantae subset of Non-redundant Database of         GenBank+EMBL+DDBJ EST Divisions Mar. 3, 2004     -   nr All non-redundant GenBank CDS translations+PDB+SwissProt+PIR         Mar. 11, 2003     -   nr_plant Plant subset of HS subset of BT subset of All         non-redundant GenBank CDS translations+PDB+SwissProt+PIR Aug. 8,         2003     -   nt All Non-redundant GenBank+EMBL+DDBJ+PDB sequences (but no         EST, STS, GSS, or HTGS sequences) Mar. 11, 2003     -   nt₁₃ monocots Monocot subset of All Non-redundant         GenBank+EMBL+DDBJ+PDB sequences (but no EST, STS, GSS, or HTGS         sequences) Mar. 11, 2003     -   swissprot The last major release of the SWISS-PROT protein         sequence database (no updates) Mar. 28, 2003

A cutoff of E value less than E-05 was used and maximum of 10 targets per database were stored in the relational database.

Tags Annotation:

Tags with hits to the Ryegrass sets were annotated by creating a summary of all the annotations of the involved sequences. The summary was generated using an algorithm to calculate the frequency of the occurrence of each word in the annotations and rank them in descending order based on the number off occurrences. The summary was limited to 10 words and a void word list was used to filter out insignificant information. The resulting summary line was used as an indication of what the tags were likely to be. Actual numbers are displayed; giving additional information that could be used to evaluate the significance of each of the words in the summary. This method of automatic annotation using keyword counts is similar to the Automatic comment that is used by the ProDom database (http://protein.toulouse.inra.fr/prodom/current/html/ home.php) to annotate the automatically generated protein domain families.

Detailed annotation based on the top hits of the involved sequences was displayed when viewing tags data.

Two polynucleotide sequences of particular interest were identified in the above analysis. These are ORF4 (corresponds to SEQ ID NO: 82) and ORF12 (corresponding to SEQ ID NO: 201).

ORF4 appears to encode a helix-loop-helix transcription factor. The transcript accumulates in cold, dehydrated and rehydrating tissues. The full transcript profile is shown in table 1.

TABLE 1 SAGE_TAG TGACACCGTT LPWPRE 0 LPWPOS 0 LPRWIN 0 LPSPRE 0 LPSPOS 2 LPISFI 1 LPUPOS 2 LPAPRE 2 LPAPOS 1 LPMALF 0 LPCOLD 2 LPHYDR 0 LPDEHY 4 LPREHY 2 Total 15

ORF12 appears to encode a zinc finger protein and the transcript accumulates in response to drought stimulus. The full transcript profile is shown in table 2 below.

TABLE 2 SAGE_TAG TGTATCATTA LPWPRE 0 LPWPOS 0 LPRWIN 0 LPSPRE 0 LPSPOS 0 LPISFI 0 LPUPOS 0 LPAPRE 0 LPAPOS 0 LPMALF 2 LPCOLD 0 LPHYDR 0 LPDEHY 6 LPREHY 0 Total 8

ORF12 appears to be a C2H2 class zinc finger transcription factor with two zinc fingers. The first zinc finger is contained in the polypeptide between amino acid residue 81 and 101 of SEQ ID NO:163 while the second zinc finger is contained in the polypeptide sequence between amino acid residue 144 and 164. Within the first zinc finger a conserved amino acid sequence motif QALGGHK was identified which is directly repeated in the second zinc finger domain, the conserved motif being separated by 56 residues. The H residue in this motif, in the first zinc finger, appears to be the first of the two H residues that is reported to be the active site in the C2H2 class zinc finger transcription factors.

Example 2 Identification Variants of ORF 4 and ORF 12

The polypeptide sequence encoded by the ORF4 and ORF12 were used as seed sequences to perform BLASTP search against NR PLANT database (release date Jul. 30, 04). Besides BLASTP, a TBLASTN search was also performed against EST PLANT database (release date Jul. 15, 04) and NT PLANT database (release date Jul. 15, 04). To identify the variants cut-off e value was generally set at greater than 1e-05, which was determined based upon the associated score value.

Selected variant sequences were aligned using the EMBOSS tool EMMA (Thompson, J. D., Higgins, D. G. and Gibson, T. J. 1994, CABIOS, 10, 19-29.), which is an interface to the popular multiple alignment program ClustalW. Aligned sequences were visualised using another EMBOSS tool called prettyplot, which displays aligned sequences with colouring and boxing.

All the ORF4 variant polypeptide sequences above were aligned as described above with ORF4 and a consensus motif (SEQ ID NO:1) common to ORF4 and ORF4 variants from all plant (both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous) sequences was identified as shown in FIG. 1.

A similar consensus motif (SEQ ID NO:2) was identified which was specific to ORF4 and all of the dicotyledonous variant sequences as shown in FIG. 2.

A further consensus motif (SEQ ID NO:3) was identified which was specific to ORF4 and all of the monocotyledonous variant sequences as shown in FIG. 3.

All the ORF12 variant polypeptide sequences above were aligned as described above with ORF12 and a consensus motif (SEQ ID NO:4) common to ORF12 and ORF12 variants from all plant (both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous) sequences was identified as shown in FIG. 4.

A similar consensus motif (SEQ ID NO:5) was identified which was specific to ORF4 and all of the dicotyledonous variant sequences as shown in FIG. 5.

A further consensus motif (SEQ ID NO:6) was identified which was specific to ORF4 and all of the monocotyledonous variant sequences as shown in FIG. 6.

We note that the repeated QALGGHK motif discussed above which was identified in ORF12 is also repeated in all of the ORF12 polypeptide variants being separated by between 36 and 63 amino acid residues. This is thus a distinctive feature of ORF12 and all of the ORF12 variant sequences identified.

Example 3 Preparation of Vectors Comprising Polynucleotides of the Invention for Plant Transformation Vectors Comprising ORF4

A vector comprising ORF4 driven by the ryegrass promoter of SEQ ID NO:239 was produced by standard molecular biology techniques. A map to vectors is shown in FIG. 7. The sequence of the vector (SEQ ID NO:240) is shown in FIG. 8.

A vector comprising ORF4 driven by the double CaMV35S promoter was produced by standard molecular biology techniques. A map to vectors is shown in FIG. 11. The sequence of the vector (SEQ ID NO:242) is shown in FIG. 12.

Vector Comprising ORF12

A vector comprising ORF12 driven the by the ryegrass promoter of SEQ ID NO:239 was produced by standard molecular biology techniques. A map of the vector is shown in FIG. 9. The sequence (SEQ ID NO:241) and features of the vector is shown in FIG. 10.

A vector comprising ORF12 driven the by the double CaMV35S promoter was produced by standard molecular biology techniques. A map of the vector is shown in FIG. 13. The sequence (SEQ ID NO:243) and features of the vector is shown in FIG. 14.

Example 4 Transformation of Plants Within the Polynucleotides of the Invention Donor Plant Production to Obtain Tissue Culture Explants

Seeds to establish contamination free in-vitro cultures were surface sterilized for 3 minutes with 70% (v/v) ethanol; followed by 60 minutes with sodium hypochlorite solution (2.4% active Chlorine) supplemented with a surfactant (0.1% (w/v) of Tween-20 and five rinses with autoclaved distilled water. Plantlets of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) cultivar ‘Limes’ (DSV Lippstadt/Germany) were clonally propagated in a 90 mm Petridish, containing Murashige and Skoog (Murashige, T and Skoog, F (1962) Physiol. Plant 15(3): 473-497) basal medium supplemented with 0.1 mg/l Benzylaminopurine; pH 5.8 and was solidified with 3.0g/l phytagel (Sigma), at 16° C. during night and 20° C. during the day with 14/12 h light/dark cycle. Light intensity of at least 360 μEm⁻²s⁻¹ at plant height was maintained with sodium vapor lights (SON-T AGRO 400, Phillips). Axillary buds approximately 4-10 mm in size were excised and placed on callus induction medium. 12 explants were cultured per 90 mm petri-dish at 20 μEm⁻²s⁻¹ and 25° C. for 28 to 56 days and calli sub-cultured to fresh medium every 14 days.

Biolistic Gene Transfer, Selection and Regeneration of Transgenic Plants

Calli were bombarded with DNA-coated particles six to ten weeks after culture of explants. Four to six hours prior to biolistic gene transfer calli were sub-cultured on medium with additional 64 g·l⁻¹ mannitol and retransferred to mannitol free callus subculture medium after the particle bombardment. Regeneration medium differed from the callus induction medium in the phytohormone composition (no 2,4-D and BAP) and the carbohydrate source and concentration (20 g-1⁻¹ sucrose). Calli were cultured in low light at 20 μm⁻²·s⁻¹ and 24° C. and regenerated initially at 50 μm⁻²·s⁻¹ with a 16 h day, 8 h night cycle at 24° C. Two weeks after transfer to regeneration media light intensity was increased to 130 μm⁻²·s⁻¹ with fluorescent lamps (Philips TL-D 58 W/840R).

The plasmid pJFnpt contains the selectable nptII gene, encoding the enzyme neomycin phosphotransferase II under control of the maize ubiquitin promoter and first intron (Christensen and Quail 1996, Transgenic Res., 5, 213-218). The nptII expression cassette from pJFnpt was inserted into the pPZP 111 vector [P Hajdukiewicz, Z Svab, and P Maliga, 1994 Plant Molecular Biology 25: 989-994]. The plasmids pPZP 111, pCORF4, pCORF12, pDORF4 and pDORF12 were isolated as supercoiled DNA using commercially available DNA Maxiprep Kit. Vector backbone was removed from both the selectable marker gene expression cassette as well as from the target gene expression cassette by restriction digest, gel electrophoresis and gel purification prior gene transfer. Genetic transformation of perennial ryegrass was essentially carried out as described previously (Altpeter, F., Xu, J. and Ahmed S. 2000, Molecular Breeding, 6, 519-528). In brief, minimal transgene expression cassettes without vector backbone were precipitated on gold particles and delivered to target tissue in a 2:1 molar ratio (target gene expression cassette: selectable marker gene expression cassette) using a DuPont PDS-1000/He (BioRad, USA) device and 1100 psi rupture disks [Kikkert, J. R., 1993, Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture, 33.(3) 221-226]. Particle density was adjusted by the final volume of ethanol in the gold-DNA suspension to 50 μg per bombardment. Five μl of the DNA coated particles were spread on the surface of the macrocarrier. Thirty to 35 callus pieces were put in the center of a petridish per bombardment six to ten weeks after callus initiation.

Selection was initiated five to seven days after biolistic gene transfer into calli. Two to three biweekly callus subcultures on CIM medium with 50 mg·l⁻¹ paromomycin were followed by two to three biweekly subcultures on 50 mg l-1 paromomycin containing SRM medium. Four to eight weeks after transfer of selected calli to light, rooted transgenic plants were screened by performing an ELISA for nptII expression using leaf protein extracts. nptII positive plants were further screened by performing a genomic PCR involving ORF4 or ORF12 specific primers as appropriate. Positive primary transformants were transferred to soil under controlled environment conditions and kept at 15° C./12° C. day/night with a 12 hour photoperiod and 400 μE·m⁻²·s⁻¹. Illumination was provided by sodium vapor lamps (Philips SON-T AGRO 400) and vegetatively propagated to produce clones of uniform size and growth. RT-PCR was carried out using standard methodology on regenerated plants to determine the transgene expression levels and lines for drought screening were selected based on the transgene expression level.

Transgenic lines transformed with the double CaMV 35-driven ORF4 cassette used in further experiments included: C4 14, C4-19 and C4-20.

Transgenic lines transformed with the ryegrass promoter (SEQ ID NO:239)-driven ORF4 cassette, used in further experiments included D4-1, D4-5, D4-7 and D4-32.

Transgenic lines transformed with the ryegrass promoter (SEQ ID NO:239)-driven ORF12 cassette, used in further experiments included D12-58, D12-60 and D12-61.

Example 5 Alteration in Tolerance to Environmental Stress in Plants Transformed with Polynucleotides of the Invention Drought Screening in Growth Chamber Based Hydroponics System.

Clones of selected lines and a non-transgenic control line were established in a hydroponics system that was set up in a growth chamber. The experimental setup involved four replications. After establishment, the plants were exposed to two rounds of drought-stress (plants lifted up from the hydroponic system) comprising of 4 h drought followed by 6 days of recovery in the first cycle and then by 8 hours of drought and 20 h recovery in the second cycle. Biometric parameters such as Quantum yield of Photosystem II (yield) and Electron Transfer Rate (ETR) were measured using a Pulse Modulated Fluorometer (PAM2000) before the drought stress, at the end of the first drought cycle, at the end of the first recovery period, at the end of the second drought stress and finally at the end of the second recovery period (FIG. 15). Each data point in the figure represents the average of 12 measurements (three measurements per plant and four plants per line). The non-transgenic control fared poorly as when compared with its transgenic counterparts expressing either ORF4 or ORF12. FIG. 16 shows the condition of non-transgenic plant (TC 2, bottom right) and some of the transgenic lines at the end of the second recovery period.

Drought Screening in Glasshouse Based Potted Plants.

Equal sized transgenic and non-transgenic clones were produced and established in pots filled with soil. Drought screening was carried out by withholding water for fourteen days and then the recovery observed after a day after irrigating the plants. Once again non-transgenic plants fared worse than the transgenic lines expressing either ORF4 or ORF12. FIG. 17 is a representative image of the outcome of this trial.

Drought Screening in SUN-Lit Chambers

Transgenic lines over-expressing ORF 4, or 12 were selected for a detailed physiological analysis in SUN-LIT chambers following their performance in hydroponic culture and soil (pots) under controlled environment conditions (growth chamber and greenhouse respectively). Six lines of transgenic ryegrass and a wildtype ryegrass (WT) were vegetatively propagated in the greenhouse before transplanting to the SPAR chamber, i.e., C4-19, C4-20, D4-1, D4-7, D12-60, D12-61, non-transgenic WT. These lines were randomized in a block design of 4 replications per chamber.

Soil Moisture Monitoring

The soil moisture (VWC, volumetric water content) was recorded with a TDR300 at an interval of two to three days starting 10 Feb. 2006. Measurements were taken in each row between each of the plants at 20 cm depth (there were 28 positions for monitoring soil water status in each chamber). The time course of the VWC (every data point represents the VWC average of 28 positions) is shown in FIG. 18 and the dates for subsurface irrigation are indicated. Following the establishment period subsurface irrigation was cut on 24 Feb. 2006. Soil moisture content declined and reached a VWC below 3% on 5 Apr. 2006. A 54 days period of no-irrigation was followed by a re-growth period coupled with weekly biomass harvest during the second dry down cycle. Plants showed progressive wilting from 20 Mar. 2006 and severe necrosis after 12 Apr. 2006 (FIG. 19).

Chlorophyll Content in Different Lines

The chlorophyll content of leaves was measured with a chlorophyll meter (SPAD-502, Konica Minolta Sensing, Inc., Japan). For each plant, the second youngest, fully expanded leaf from three different tillers per plant was measured. Each data point in Table 3 represented the average of 12 measurements from the four clones of each transgenic line or wild type. The statistical significance levels of the difference in chlorophyll content between transgenic lines and wild type are shown: * significant difference at P<0.05; ** significant difference at P<0.01. The data indicate that three transgenic lines displayed higher chlorophyll contents than the wild type over the majority of time points: C4-20, D4-1 and D4-7 and that the chlorophyll content of D4-1 and D4-7 actually increased after the drought cycles (19 May 2006) as compared to pre-drought state (14 Feb. 2006).

TABLE 3 Different Levels Of Chlorophyll Contents In Non-Transgenic And Transgenic Lines Date WT C4-19 C4-20 D12-60 D12-61 D4-1 D4-7 02-14 40.2 40.8 49.5 ** 42.9 43.1 * 40.2 46.9 ** 03-09 47.9 47.5 54.0 * 49.8 ** 49.7 49.4 51.8 * 03-20 45.7 44.0 53.0 * 50.1 48.1 46.5 49.1 * 04-05 49.2 51.3 56.2 * 52.4 51.5 53.8 56.8 * 04-13 48.5 44.8 ** 59.0 ** 49.3 49.0 56.7 ** 58.1 ** 04-18 33.0 35.4 49.5 ** 32.0 34.5 49.4 ** 51.0 ** 04-20 34.0 32.6 41.0 ** 38.6 36.0 41.0 * 39.9 * 04-28 41.0 39.4 47.2 ** 45.1 * 41.6 45.3 ** 52.6 ** 05-05 45.1 43.8 50.7 * 47.1 44.8 46.8 51.6 * 05-12 44.2 45.0 49.9 ** 44.9 44.9 46.3 49.1 * 05-19 40.2 38.8 47.8 ** 37.3 34.4 43.7 47.5

Chlorophyll Fluorescence Parameters (ETR & Yield)

The chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, electron transport rate (ETR) and quantum yield (Yield), were measured with the PAM2000 fluorometer and are presented in FIGS. 20 and 21, respectively. The second fully expanded leaf was measured from three tillers per plant. Each data point in the figures represents the average of 12 measurements (3 measurements per clone, four clones per line) for each line. The volumetric water content of the soil is given in brackets in the figure legend. The absence of data for C4-20 during the second round of drought period indicates that the leaves of these transgenic plants were too small or narrow to be measured. During severe stress (VWC less than 3%) the wildtype did not show a statistically lower ETR or yield than the transgenic lines although there were statistically significant differences in the chlorophyll contents.

Above-Ground Biomass

All leaves were cut 2 days after re-watering at 2.5 cm clipping height. The fresh weights (FW) of leaves were measured immediately, then leaves were dried at 80° C. for 48 h and the dry weight (DW) was measured. The difference between fresh weight and dry weight was used as an indicator of early recovery from drought stress. The aboveground biomass in chamber 1 and 2 produced since during the first dry down cycle is shown in FIG. 22. Mass loss indicates the difference of fresh weight and dry weight over fresh weight. No transgenic line produced significantly more biomass than wildtype in the first dry down cycle. However, transgenic lines C4-19, C4-20, D4-1 and D12-60 exhibited comparatively less biomass loss.

The time course of the newly produced leaf biomass (DW) during the second dry down cycle with clipping intervals of 7 to 10 days are shown in FIG. 23. The bars indicate the SE of four readings from four replications of each line in one chamber. With decreasing of soil moisture, the newly produced biomass of each line decreased. Wild type line, which had the highest biomass before the beginning of the trial, always had the highest amount of DW among all lines at any clipping time, but the differences declined with progressive drought stress and there was no significant difference between wildtype and transgenic lines at the 2 Jun. 2006 harvest. This indicates that the loss in the ability to produce aboveground biomass in the transgenic plants is lower than wild type under drought stress conditions.

The above examples illustrate practice of the invention. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that numerous variations and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

SUMMARY OF SEQUENCES SEQ ID NO: TYPE SPECIES REFERENCE 1 Polypeptide Plant Consensus 2 Polypeptide Dicotyledonous Consensus 3 Polypeptide Monocotyledonous Consensus 4 Polypeptide Lolium perenne ORF4 5 Polypeptide Oryza sativa BAC8588.1 6 Polypeptide Oryza sativa BAD03011.1 7 Polypeptide Oryza sativa BAD07720.1 8 Polypeptide Triticum aestivum BQ805537 9 Polypeptide Hordeum vulgare BQ466561 10 Polypeptide Oryza sativa CB683708 11 Polypeptide Triticum aestivum BJ236148 12 Polypeptide Triticum aestivum BE490521 13 Polypeptide Hordeum vulgare BQ468417 14 Polypeptide Triticum aestivum BJ292865 15 Polypeptide Oryza sativa CB632480 16 Polypeptide Triticum aestivum BJ282803 17 Polypeptide Sorghum bicolor CN123916 18 Polypeptide Sorghum bicolor CN139457 19 Polypeptide Sorghum bicolor CF757974 20 Polypeptide Zea mays CA830789 21 Polypeptide Sorghum bicolor CF757859 22 Polypeptide Zea mays AW120094 23 Polypeptide Saccharum officinarum CA186576 24 Polypeptide Saccharum officinarum CA135735 25 Polypeptide Sorghum bicolor CN123829 26 Polypeptide Triticum aestivum BJ299272 27 Polypeptide Triticum aestivum BJ312914 28 Polypeptide Triticum aestivum CK214681 29 Polypeptide Zea mays BG841716 30 Polypeptide Zea mays CD439661 31 Polypeptide Sorghum bicolor CN130285 32 Polypeptide Sorghum bicolor CN130210 33 Polypeptide Hordeum vulgare BJ450702 34 Polypeptide Sorghum bicolor BE601333 35 Polypeptide Zea mays CB350589 36 Polypeptide Zea mays BU092370 37 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 200279.1 38 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana AAM64276.1 39 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 175518.1 40 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana AAM10939.1 41 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 188962.2 42 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 567431.1 43 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 849383.1 44 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana BAB01300.1 45 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 188620.1 46 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana AAL91266.1 47 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 849566.1 48 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 195330.2 49 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana T05498 50 Polypeptide Vitis vinifera CF518638 51 Polypeptide Citrus reticulata CF830716 52 Polypeptide Medicago trunculata BG647802 53 Polypeptide Vitis vinifera CF212640 54 Polypeptide Gossypium raimondii CO114007 55 Polypeptide Citrus reticulata CF830658 56 Polypeptide Solanum tuberosum CK273638 57 Polypeptide Solanum tuberosum CK274846 58 Polypeptide Solanum tuberosum CK272231 59 Polypeptide Vitis vinifera CF212555 60 Polypeptide Glycine max CF805866 61 Polypeptide Solanum tuberosum CK270277 62 Polypeptide Citrus reticulata CF830657 63 Polypeptide Thellungiella halophila BM985503 64 Polypeptide Populus tremuloides CF118919 65 Polypeptide Vitis vinifera CF512838 66 Polypeptide Brassica napus BQ704279 67 Polypeptide Vitis vinifera CF518705 68 Polypeptide Gossypium raimondii CO090106 69 Polypeptide Populus tremuloides CF118982 70 Polypeptide Prunus dulcis BU645447 71 Polypeptide Glycine max BI972959 72 Polypeptide Medicago trunculata CA918862 73 Polypeptide Medicago trunculata CA922356 74 Polypeptide Glycine max BQ253067 75 Polypeptide Vitis vinifera CD800120 76 Polypeptide Glycine soja BG043667 77 Polypeptide Solanum tuberosum CK259672 78 Polypeptide Gossypium raimondii CO079077 79 Polypeptide Vitis vinifera CF518625 80 Polypeptide Lycopersicon esculentum BG643869 81 Polypeptide Pinus taeda CO364588 82 Polynucleotide Lolium perenne ORF4 83 polynucleotide Oryza sativa AB110196 84 Polynucleotide Oryza sativa AP003876 85 Polynucleotide Oryza sativa AP004121 86 Polynucleotide Triticum aestivum BQ805537 87 Polynucleotide Hordeum vulgare BQ466561 88 Polynucleotide Oryza sativa CB683708 89 Polynucleotide Triticum aestivum BJ236148 90 Polynucleotide Triticum aestivum BE490521 91 Polynucleotide Hordeum vulgare BQ468417 92 Polynucleotide Triticum aestivum BJ292865 93 Polynucleotide Oryza sativa CB632480 94 Polynucleotide Triticum aestivum BJ282803 95 Polynucleotide Sorghum bicolor CN123916 96 Polynucleotide Sorghum bicolor CN139457 97 Polynucleotide Sorghum bicolor CF757974 98 Polynucleotide Zea mays CA830789 99 Polynucleotide Sorghum bicolor CF757859 100 Polynucleotide Zea mays AW120094 101 Polynucleotide Saccharum officinarum CA186576 102 Polynucleotide Saccharum officinarum CA135735 103 Polynucleotide Sorghum bicolor CN123829 104 Polynucleotide Triticum aestivum BJ299272 105 Polynucleotide Triticum aestivum BJ312914 106 Polynucleotide Triticum aestivum CK214681 107 Polynucleotide Zea mays BG841716 108 Polynucleotide Zea mays CD439661 109 Polynucleotide Sorghum bicolor CN130285 110 Polynucleotide Sorghum bicolor CN130210 111 Polynucleotide Hordeum vulgare BJ450702 112 Polynucleotide Sorghum bicolor BE601333 113 Polynucleotide Zea mays CB350589 114 Polynucleotide Zea mays BU092370 115 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana NM 124849 116 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana AY086197 117 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana NM 103985 118 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana AF488573 119 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana NM 113222 120 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana NM 117520 121 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana NM 179052 122 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana AB025631 123 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana NM 112876 124 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana AY090362 125 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana NM 179235 126 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana NM 119773 127 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana AL022373 128 Polynucleotide Vitis vinifera CF518638 129 Polynucleotide Citrus reticulate CF830716 130 Polynucleotide Medicago trunculata BG647802 131 Polynucleotide Vitis vinifera CF212640 132 Polynucleotide Gossypium raimondii CO114007 133 Polynucleotide Citrus reticulata CF830658 134 Polynucleotide Solanum tuberosum CK273638 135 Polynucleotide Solanum tuberosum CK274846 136 Polynucleotide Solanum tuberosum CK272231 137 Polynucleotide Vitis vinifera CF212555 138 Polynucleotide Glycine max CF805866 139 Polynucleotide Solanum tuberosum CK270277 140 Polynucleotide Citrus reticulata CF830657 141 Polynucleotide Thellungiella halophila BM985503 142 Polynucleotide Populus tremuloides CF118919 143 Polynucleotide Vitis vinifera CF512838 144 Polynucleotide Brassica napus BQ704279 145 Polynucleotide Vitis vinifera CF518705 146 Polynucleotide Gossypium raimondii CO090106 147 Polynucleotide Populus tremuloides CF118982 148 Polynucleotides Prunus dulcis BU645447 149 Polynucleotide Glycine max BI972959 150 Polynucleotide Medicago trunculata CA918862 151 Polynucleotide Medicago trunculata CA922356 152 Polynucleotide Glycine max BQ253067 153 Polynucleotide Vitis vinifera CD800120 154 Polynucleotide Glycine soja BG043667 155 Polynucleotide Solanum tuberosum CK259672 156 Polynucleotide Gossypium raimondii CO079077 157 Polynucleotide Vitis vinifera CF518625 158 Polynucleotide Lycopersicon esculentum BG643869 159 Polynucleotide Pinus taeda CO364588 160 Polypeptide Plant Consensus 161 Polypeptide Dicotyledonous Consensus 162 Polypeptide Monocotyledonous Consensus 163 Polypeptide Lolium perenne ORF12 164 Polypeptide Oryza sativa AA046041 165 Polypeptide Oryza sativa AAP42273.1 166 Polypeptide Triticum aestivum Q42430 167 Polypeptide Oryza sativa AAK01713 168 Polypeptide Oryza sativa BAC83752 169 Polypeptide Aegilops speltoides BQ840910 170 Polypeptide Secale cereale CD453233 171 Polypeptide Saccharum officinarum CA142551 172 Polypeptide Nicotiana Benthamiana AAQ54303 173 Polypeptide Capsicum annum AAQ10954 174 Polypeptide Medicago sativa CAB77055 175 Polypeptide Glycine max T09602 176 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana AAF24959 177 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 174094 178 Polypeptide Datisca glomerata AAD26942 179 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana CAA67229 180 Polypeptide Petunia X hybrida BAA05079 181 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 188952 182 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana BAC43454 183 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 196054 184 Polypeptide Brassica rapa T14408 185 Polypeptide Brassica rapa T14409 186 Polypeptide Nicotiana tabacum T01985 187 Polypeptide Petunia X Hybrida BAA05077 188 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 199131 189 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana AAM67193 190 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 190562 191 Polypeptide Petunia X hybrida BAA05076 192 Polypeptide Arabidopsis thaliana NP 201546 193 Polypeptide Solanum tuberosum CK267005 194 Polypeptide Gossypium raimondii CO122574 195 Polypeptide Vitis aestivalis CB074681 196 Polypeptide Lycopersicon esculentum BI421491 197 Polypeptide Medicago trunculata BI308195 198 Polypeptide Populus sp. BU884157 199 Polypeptide Citrus sinensis CK938508 200 Polypeptide Lotus corniculatus AP004523 201 Polynucleotide Lolium perenne ORF12 202 Polynucleotide Oryza sativa AY219847 203 Polynucleotide Oryza sativa AY289189 204 Polynucleotide Triticum aestivum D16415 205 Polynucleotide Oryza sativa AF332876 206 Polynucleotide Oryza sativa AP005149 207 Polynucleotide Aegilops speltoides BQ840910 208 Polynucleotide Secale cereale CD453233 209 Polynucleotide Saccarum officinarum CA142551 210 Polynucleotide Nicotiana benthamiana AY290702 211 Polynucleotide Capsicum annuum AF539746 212 Polynucleotide Medicago sativa Y18788 213 Polynucleotide Glycine max GMU68763 214 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana AC012375 215 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana NM 102538 216 Polynucleotide Datisca glomerata AF119050 217 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana X98671 218 Polynucleotide Petunia X hybrida D26086 219 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana NM 112848 220 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana AK118868 221 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana NM 120516 222 Polynucleotide Brassica rapa BRU76554 223 Polynucleotide Brassica rapa BRU76555 224 Polynucleotide Nicotiana tabacum AF053077 225 Polynucleotide Petunia X hybrida D26084 226 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis Thaliana NM 123683 227 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana AY088887 228 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana NM 114853 229 Polynucleotide Petunia x hybrida D26083 230 Polynucleotide Arabidopsis thaliana NM 126145 231 Polynucleotide Solanum tuberosum CK267005 232 Polynucleotide Gossypium raimondii CO122574 233 Polynucleotide Vitis aestivalis CB074681 234 Polynucleotide Lycopersicon esculentum BI421491 235 Polynucleotide Medicago trunculata BI308195 236 Polynucleotide Populus sp. BU884157 237 Polynucleotide Citrus sinensis CK938508 238 Polynucleotide Lotus corniculatus AP004523 239 Polynucleotide Lolium perenne Promoter 240 Polynucleotide — Genetic construct ORF4 (FIG. 7/8) 241 Polynucleotide — Genetic Construct ORF 12 (FIG. 9/10) 242 Polynucleotide — Genetic construct pCORF 4 (FIG. 11/12) 243 Polynucleotide — Genetic construct (FIG. 13/14) pCORF 12 244 Polypeptide — Motif 

1. An isolated polynucleotide comprising: a) a sequence encoding a polypeptide with at least 95% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:163; or b) the complement of the sequence of a).
 2. The isolated polynucleotide of claim 1, wherein the polypeptide is derived from a plant species and comprises the sequence of SEQ ID NO:160.
 3. The isolated polynucleotide of claim 1, wherein the polypeptide is derived from a dicotyledonous species and comprises the sequence of SEQ ID NO:161.
 4. The isolated polynucleotide of claim 1, wherein the polypeptide is derived from a monocotyledonous species and comprises the sequence of SEQ ID NO:162.
 5. The isolated polynucleotide of claim 1, wherein the polypeptide has the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:163.
 6. The isolated polynucleotide of claim 1, wherein the sequence encoding the polypeptide in a) has at least 95% identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO:201.
 7. The isolated polynucleotide of claim 1, wherein the sequence encoding the polypeptide in a) has at least 95% identity to the coding sequence of SEQ ID NO:201.
 8. The isolated polynucleotide of claim 1, wherein the sequence encoding the polypeptide in a) has the sequence of SEQ ID NO:201.
 9. The isolated polynucleotide of claim 1, wherein the sequence encoding the polypeptide in a) has the coding sequence of SEQ ID NO:201.
 10. A genetic construct comprising the polynucleotide of claim
 1. 11. A host cell comprising a genetic construct of claim
 10. 12. The host cell of claim 11 genetically modified to express a polynucleotide comprising a sequence encoding a polypeptide with at least 95% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:163.
 13. A plant cell or plant comprising the genetic construct of claim 10, or a plant part, propagule, progeny or see of the plant, wherein the plant part, propagule, progeny or seed of the plant comprises the genetic construct.
 14. A plant cell or plant of claim 13 genetically modified to express a polynucleotide same as claim 13, or a plant part, propagule, progeny or see of the plant, wherein the plant part, propagule, progeny or seed of the plant expresses the polynucleotide.
 15. An isolated polypeptide comprising: a) a sequence with at least 95% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 163; or b) a fragment of at least 5 contiguous amino acids of the sequence in a), wherein the fragment has essentially the same activity as the polypeptide in a).
 16. The isolated polypeptide of claim 15, wherein the sequence in a) has the sequence of SEQ ID NO:
 163. 17. An antibody raised against a polypeptide of claim
 16. 18. An isolated polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide consisting of: a) a sequence with at least 95% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 163; or b) a fragment of at least 5 contiguous amino acids of the sequence in a).
 19. A genetic construct comprising the polynucleotide of claim
 18. 20. A probe or primer capable of hybridizing under stringent hybridization conditions to a polynucleotide consisting of: a) a sequence encoding a polypeptide with at least 95% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:163; or b) the complement of the sequence of a).
 21. The probe or primer of claim 20, comprising at least 15 contiguous nucleotides of a polynucleotide consisting of: a) a sequence encoding a polypeptide with at least 95% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:163; or b) the complement of the sequence of a).
 22. A method for producing a plant cell or plant with altered tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity; the method comprising the step of transformation of a plant cell or plant with a genetic construct including: a) at least one polynucleotide comprising: i) a sequence encoding a polypeptide with at least 95% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:163; or ii) the complement of the sequence of a); or b) at least one polynucleotide comprising a fragment, of at least 15 nucleotides in length, of the polynucleotide of a).
 23. The method of claim 22, wherein the stress is environmental stress is drought stress.
 24. A method for selecting a plant with altered tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polynucleotide comprising: a) a sequence encoding a polypeptide with at least 95% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:163; or b) the complement of the sequence of a).
 25. A method for selecting a plant with altered tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity, the method comprising testing of a plant for altered expression of a polypeptide comprising: a) a sequence with at least 95% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
 163. 